Macabre
by Captain Harlequin
Summary: After an issue involving Team Rocket, Elizabeth's mother forces her into joining their infamous ranks. However, it results in her Pokémon getting stolen off her! Determined to steal them back, she then disguises herself and finally gets in, but only to get discovered by Proton. Under constant 'bullying' by Proton - her only refuge is with Petrel - which is weird enough on it's own.
1. Of Beedrill and Raticates

**My god. I'm actually writing something! This is like literally a first in two years. Writers block is fantastic, especially one that lasts for more than a year 8). But anyway, this is something I've had in mind for absolutely ages now. Ever since I bought Heart Gold again (I lost my original copy aaaaaaages ago :c ) and beat Team Rocket again, it made me like, kinda obsessed with Team Rocket LMFAO**

**Anyway, the summary: (I'm terrible at summaries, by the way)**

**When Elizabeth is forced into joining Team Rocket, a complication arises which results in her Pokémon getting stolen by Proton instead of her joining the notorious ranks. She then manages to join them in disguise – but ends up getting found out by Proton, whom is keeping a "watchful" eye on her due to his belief that she is trying to bring Team Rocket down. When things start turning for the worst, how will Elizabeth cope in her isolation and an increasing threat? rated T for minor swearing + violence later on. Starts a little before Slowpoke Well and ends after the Radio Tower.  
**

**Edit: 19/3/13 - this is now a PetrelxOC story! bit of a turning point, I know, but the plot is pretty much staying the same. Well, sort of LMFAO**

**Uh okay so this chapter is **_**really**_** long and drags on... the plot doesn't really start until chapter 2. This is more of an introduction chapter than an interesting chapter. So if you read this and think "God, this is terrible" at least try and read the next chapter, as that's when the plot actually starts. The first paragraph is literally an introduction and is just there to get a bit of a grasp on a few things, such as identity and stigma. Also, the last paragraph is really short as I felt as if the first chapter was dragging on long enough as it was LMFAO ugh the first chapter is always so boringggggggg**

**disclaimer: i do not own pokemon, the only thing i own are my lame ass ocs**

* * *

Prologue

_I'll always remember the worst decision of my life. But I can't say that it was one I'd totally regret; even though I could not fully class it as my own decision. The nightmare started when my Mother ran into the house after taking my brother to the bug catching contest in the national park near Goldenrod city. They went every Thursday night and came back without any trouble, but this time, something was different. The way she was breathing made her look exhausted, and the way my brother was staring at me made me notice something. His eyes were bloodshot. My mother ran up to me and hugged me, before she announced the news that couldn't help but make me give a wry smile._

"_Team Rocket is back"._

_I can't completely say that when my Mother told me that Team Rocket were back, I believed her outright from the start. I rolled my eyes at her – Team Rocket had no reason to be back. Their leader – I can't remember his name. It was Giovanette, or something like that – had disbanded them three years ago in Kanto, our neighbour region. I remember the news like the back of my hand, they had tried to take over Silph Co. and had been brought down by a young boy. If they were weak enough to be brought down by a young boy, why on earth would they attempt to come back? On top of that, the leader had been missing ever since, so they would have no sort of leader or anybody of higher ranking. Unless the bumbling grunts had finally built some sort of hierarchy among their selves. _

"_Mother. How do you know that they're back? They've been gone for three years and their leader is missing. You know that the chance that they're back is slim to nothing."_

"_Then why on earth did two men dressed in black with huge R's plastered on them steal your brother's Beedrill?"_

_...Huston, we have a problem._

* * *

Chapter 1: Of Beedrill and Raticates.

Before I get in depth with everything, I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Elizabeth Frank. I'm 17 – almost 18, and I'm a rather boring person. I can't say that I'm dull, to be fair, but most of the people I know have said that I put on a cold shell to strangers and then once I know them, I'm a rather nice person. I've been living in Ecruteak City for the best part of 10 years now. I was born in Olivine city, as my Father was a sailor, and it was convenient for our family to live there, so whenever Father would arrive after one of his trips abroad he could come home easily. My Mother hated it there, though. She hated the chaos of the harbour and hated the smell of the fish. However, one day, we received news from one of Father's co-workers that he had met another woman on his travels, and was not coming back. Mother was devastated. I didn't really understand what was going on, but once we moved away from our home in Olivine and moved into an old, creaky house in the middle of Ecruteak, I understood fully that Father was not coming back. However, it turns out that Mother was also pregnant at the time, and shortly after our move to Ecruteak she gave birth to my brother, Elliot. We dealt fine without Father – Mother worked in Goldenrod City in the Radio tower at the welcome desk, and had a pretty well paying job. So the fact that we were living closer to her job was a bonus for her. I was also a fairly good trainer as I got older, and got a lot of money from battling.

Life sounds all fine and dandy - but there is one problem. I am rather lonely.

On my travels around Johto, I had lost connection with my friends as I was too caught up in battling and raising up my team of idiots.

My idiots are the only true friends I have – they are my Kabutops, Gengar and Tentacruel.

My Kabutops is my oldest Pokémon – and not just because it was a fossil. At one of my days out at the beach in Olivine when I was around 5, I found a fossil in the sand. It turns out it was the fossil of a Kabuto, and for my birthday I had it re-animated. I was 15 when it evolved, and it terrified my brother because of its huge scythes. I got my Gengar in my old house, just before we moved. It had always been quite a creepy house, electronics would turn off and on by their selves, furniture would move around without us touching it and at night we could often hear laughing. It turned out to be a Gastly, and when we spotted it at dinner, I grabbed the first thing I could find – a Poké Ball – and threw it at it. It evolved into a Haunter quite soon after that, and I did a double trade with a trainer I met on my travels which eventually evolved it into a Gengar. My last idiot is my Tentacruel. I went swimming near Mt. Mortar when I was around 12, and a Tentacool attached itself to me – literally. I had to get it surgically removed off me, but even after I had a scar from its tentacles, I found _myself _quite attached to it, and ended up keeping it. Irony!

However. This is no longer an introduction and more like a particularly bizarre story. After an hour of my Mother being hysterical with Elliot, she picked up the phone and was about to phone up the police.

"Mother, are you sure you want to get the police involved?" I asked her – knowing that the police would hardly be willing to accept the return of Team Rocket.

"Why shouldn't I? They stole from your brother – god knows what else they'd do if they're willing to steal from a child!" She retaliated, her bloodshot eyes quivering at me.

"But the police are busy investigating the robbery at Professor Elm's lab. I'm perfectly happy with trying to find them and trying to get back Elliot's Beedrill." I replied to her, coiling my fingers around the phone to try and get it off her.

"But they're strong!"

"Mother – I have seven gym badges."

"What if they steal your Pokémon off you?"

"Elliot's Beedrill is level 13. My Pokémon are all above level 45. I'll be fine."

"...If you say so. But if something bad happens to you then I won't think twice about calling the police."

"Thank you, mother." I replied coolly, putting the phone down. I walked up into my bedroom and noticed Kabutops was sprawled out across the floor.

"Strange thing." I laughed to myself, crouching over to it. "Kabuuuuuuuutops, wake up!" I chimed to him, sounding happier than I had done in a while. I didn't feel comfortable around my Mother, as a child she didn't pay much attention to me - even once her and Father had split up. Then once she gave birth, she gave all of her attention to Elliot. I only looked at my Pokémon to be my real family. Kabutops's eyes flickered open and stared at me in annoyance, and as he stood up, leaning on his scythes, he pointed his head in annoyance at the clock. 10pm. A rather odd time to be waking somebody up.

"Sorry about that, but we're going on an adventure!" I shouted enthusiastically at him, sarcasm apparent in my voice. I looked down at my carpet and noticed that Kabutops had slashed it even more – the whole house had its carpets covered in slits from where Kabutops had walked. The reason being is I don't keep Kabutops in a Poké ball. When it was a Kabuto, It just clung onto my shoulder and refused to go into a ball. So when it evolved, it was a bit of a problem as it literally refused to go into a Poké ball unless it was urgent. I got out of my pyjamas and got changed into a pair of jeans and a hoodie, looking in the mirror as I brushed my brown hair back into a messy ponytail. After ramming my feet into an old pair of sneakers, I shoved my other two Poké balls into my pocket, put my Pokégear in the other and ran out of my room, Kabutops lumbering after me. As I hurled myself downstairs, Kabutops inched its way down them – walking down stairs was always a problem for it.

"Bye, Mother" I shouted at her, before walking out of the white chipped door.

The dark had been around for a few hours now, being it January, and it was cold outside. As I shut the door, I breathed a sigh of stress, my breath trailed out of my mouth and spiralled out into the atmosphere. Stars were absent as the clouds closed off any sort of light from the black sky. I looked around at the Ecruteak buildings, history still reflected from them as we walked along the cobbled paths and trudged past the dance theatre. I never felt comfortable around the kimono girls, they were always too happy, and even if something bad happened to them they would not defend their selves. Many of the people my age wanted to be them – I wanted to be away from them. We walked south past the Ecruteak gate which led to a dense route of forest, and alas, led me to two suspicious looking men in black. I instantly recognised them as being in Team Rocket as they had a blazing, red R on the front of their chest. Rolling up my sleeves, I approached them, Kabutops following me unenthusiastically. They glared at me as I stopped in front of them.

"So... have either of you seen a Beedrill?" I asked them nonchalantly, raising an eyebrow to emphasise my question.

"Even if we did, we wouldn't tell you, brat!" One of them replied at me angrily – trying to intimidate me.

"Manners, guys, manners. 'Cause if you were in possession of a certain Beedrill – it'd be best for you to hand it over now before anything gets... y'know, _messy_."

"We don't do weak bug Pokémon – this is your last warning before we thrash you!"

"Fine." I ended the conversation, stepping back to let Kabutops go in front of me. The grunts growled at me and released two Koffings. I didn't mind certain Pokémon – but Koffings were the bane of my life. They stank, they always poisoned my Pokémon, and on top of that, they always made my eyes water due to their noxious fumes.

"Two against one? Can't you fight fair?" I smirked at them, as I reached into my pocket and grabbed Tentacruel's Poké ball. "Go, Tentacruel!"

A white flash surrounded the clearing as my Tentacruel loomed into the battle, it's tentacles uncurling out into a chaos of brown. Kabutops nodded at it as it walked over to stand next to the leering sea-creature.

"Tentacruel, use Surf – but mix it in with Kabutops's Rock Slide!" I commanded. Suddenly, a huge tidal wave appeared behind Tentacruel and a cluster of Rocks merged into it, and it slammed into the Koffings, KO-ing them instantly.

"Appears that I've won – now give me back that Beedrill." I smiled, standing in the middle of my two Pokémon as I watched the two Koffings sink into the floor. The grunts looked at me in annoyance as a red flash returned the deflated orbs.

"Listen, brat, we don't _have_ a Beedrill!" One shouted at me, getting ready to run.

"Not so fast – Tentacruel – use wrap on them and make sure they don't escape!" I ordered my Tentacruel and its long, coiling tentacles wrapped around the grunts' waists and suspended them in air almost immediately after I told it to. "You sure you don't have a Beedrill? 'Cause I wouldn't want to be in your position right now."

"Ugh – You're mad!" One of them shouted at me, glaring at me with pure hate.

"I'm not mad – I'm just looking for my brother's Pokémon"

"Fine – have it your way!" The other shouted, causing the other grunt to flinch. I ordered Tentacruel to release him, and he threw a slime-covered Poké Ball at me. I pointed at Tentacruel to release the other and smiled at them.

"See – Look what happens when you co-operate!" I grinned before returning Tentacruel in a haze of red light.

"You'll pay for this!" One of them shouted at me before running away into the forest, the other one bumbling after him in a flurry.

When I arrived home, Elliot was looking at me expectantly – his eyes flicking around for any sign of a Poké ball in which his Beedrill was in. I smiled at him and threw the ball back at him, the excitement apparent in his face. Mother walked over me to start saying her normal words of gratitude: _'Thank you so much Elizabeth, I have no idea what I'd do without you!'_ until Elliot emitted a shout of shock. We turned around instantly and noticed instead of the Beedrill that we were both so used to, a particularly nasty looking Raticate was in its place. I smacked my head in annoyance and Mother rushed over to Elliot. Snatching the ball from his hand, she withdrew the snapping fleabag and threw the ball on the sofa, ordering Elliot to go upstairs. Elliot scampered up and darted out of the room, and my Mother grabbed me by the shoulders.

"Elizabeth. You need to join Team Rocket." She snapped at me as Elliot's footsteps ran across our heads.

"Mother, calm down – you're being hysterical again." I held her by her wrists and removed her fixated clamps from my shoulders.

"I am NOT being hysterical Elizabeth – Team Rocket were only beaten by somebody who ended up becoming the league champion from Kanto – and you know how much stronger Kanto as a region is compared to us! Considering that even a low grunt was in possession of that thing-" she tilted her head towards the pokéball "-it obviously shows that they are a lot stronger this time!"

"Mother, they were beaten by a _child_, and I just beat them without hesitation myself."

"But that child went on to defeat the elite four and become the champion. You _know_ they're going to gain control!"

"They're not though!"

"FINE. If Team Rocket come back and steal all of our possessions and make our lives a living hell, I am putting the blame completely on you."

_Wow. So my own Mother is emotionally blackmailing me? She's really lost the plot this time. I wouldn't mind leaving this household though-_

"Forget that – If you don't do it by tomorrow morning, consider yourself moving out."

_...What. She just read my mind._

"Mother, are you feeling okay?"

"Yes Elizabeth - I am completely and utterly _okay_. I couldn't feel better than this even if I tried!"

_Mother used sarcasm. I should perhaps do this shit._

"Okay, Mother. I'll join Team Rocket. I just hope you're happy with forcing your only daughter into joining an internationally known crime syndicate." I rolled my eyes at her in frustration. Her eyes lit up and her ominous mood faded away almost instantly

"I knew you'd come through, Elizabeth!" She smiled at me, hugging me as she did so.

Well. My mother just forced me to become a criminal. Right then.

* * *

**I am SO SORRY that this chapter dragged on... there was just so much that needed to be said before I actually delved into the plot and stuff. Almost 3000 words, though. Christ. The most I normally write for a chapter is around 1000 words – but 3000 words? My god. I deserve awards.**

**Jk no I don't, but yeah. Review if you want – I don't mind criticism if it is actually telling me how to improve or what my weak points are. I also appreciate it if you have the balls to say it to my face - I really won't think of you being any less of a person. 8) But a flat out OMG ITS TERRIBLE isn't going to help me at all. you need to ~~tell~~ me why it's the worst thing you've ever read.  
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**I'll still write this even if I don't get reviews though, since I was originally going to write this for myself to see how far I got - but hey, since it's got around 3000 words for the first chapter I can actually see this going somewhere. Although, being it a Pokémon fanfic, I'll probably like get no reviews LMFAO since theres like, so many of them. Oh well. I already have chapter two written so I've actually broken my record of writing more than a chapter. 8D**


	2. A Bitch Called Proton

**I know it's kind of recent for an update considering I submitted the story about 2 minutes ago but hey heres chapter 2~**

**disclaimer: i do not own pokemon/team rocket/w.e**

* * *

Chapter 2: And She Paid Dearly;

* * *

As I walked into Goldenrod City, my eyes narrowed as I tried to spot a sign, any sign, to that of Team Rocket. _They must be somewhere around here – it only makes sense!_ I thought rapidly to myself, the cold air interrupting my trail of thought as I walked along the bright city streets. Kabutops followed behind me cautiously, dragging it's scythes across the floor; causing it to make a high pitch screech that caused a few of the city locals to stare in annoyance. One thing I'd learned to live with is Kabutops's screeching scythes – I couldn't really help it – it's not as if I can give him a piggyback anywhere. However, for my Mother's wish for me to join the Rockets, I decided that it wouldn't be safe for me to have an extinct Pokémon walking around behind me, so I'd bought a Luxury ball for him for the meantime. I'd seen a few people before who kept Pokémon out of their balls before – but they were normally smaller, weaker Pokémon who could easily sit on their owner's shoulders. Unless somebody found some sort of shrinking ray, my hopes of having Kabutops as a shadow without him getting stolen by a grunt was slim to nothing. ...Well, now that I think about it, they probably wouldn't have the balls to touch the cold, walking screech machine.

"Don't give me that look – this is for your safety." I turned around to my tired looking companion, who was glaring at me in annoyance before I concentrated on my task of finding Team Rocket. Checking my Pokégear, most of my numbers were deleted to keep suspicion down - think about it, if I were to be in some sort of meeting or plot to capture some building, it wouldn't be very good on my part if a random picnicker phoned me up to tell me that their Nidoran just got eaten alive by an Ekans. I walked past the towering mart and glanced inside the massive windows before Kabutops made a screeching noise. Turning around at him, he was nudging his head towards the radio tower, or more specifically, a man dressed suspiciously in black.

"Well, Kabutops, this is it." I sighed, reaching into my pocket for the newly bought luxury ball. Kabutops rolled his eyes before a blinding light glared around the cityscape.

"Sorry!" I whispered at the ball, before pocketing it again. I adjusted my tie and adjusted my skirt – I decided to dress up for the occasion, so I was wearing a suit. _Welcome to hell_, I thought to myself before walking over to the ominously dressed grunt.

"Er... Ehem" I tapped him on the shoulder before getting pushed backwards a mile. _Christ, this guy needs to learn what manners are!_

"Get lost, brat!" The man snarled at me, attempted malice shining in his eyes.

_Again with the brat._

"Pardon you but... I'm looking to join in on the scene... if you catch my drift." I replied, standing my ground and staring the man right back in the eye.

"You want to join Team Rocket?" He shouted in surprisement, causing a few people to turn around and stare daggers at us. _Idiot._

"I guess so." I coolly replied, raising my head in defiance of the glaring citizens. _If looks could kill._

"Follow me, then." He abandoned his post and started walking towards the subway, expecting me to follow. I looked around apprehensively at the people listening into my conversation, who were now whispering among their selves with looks of disgust, before I lumbered after the grunt.

He didn't say a word to me as we walked into the dank, badly lit subway, more people looking at the blazing red R on the man's chest. I smiled awkwardly at the hairdresser, standing in his stall in which I'd have my own hair cut, who looked back at me in confusion and disappointment. My courage sapped away like dew on a tree and I folded my arms to try and make myself look smaller – goose bumps ran across my arms and my hairs brushed against my shaking hands. It wasn't long until we walked through a short pathway that lead to a rusted shutter with a "NO ENTRY BEYOND THIS POINT" sign crudely hung up towards the side of it. I looked towards the end of the pathway and noticed a little girl staring at me in confusion from the side of the wall. I tilted my head towards her before the Rocket grabbed me by my forearm and roughly pulled me into the darkened room which he had apparently opened.

As soon as I entered the room, a damp scent crept into my lungs as the grunt closed the rusted shutter. All of the light dashed out of the room and was eaten by shadows as a _crash_ sealed the exit off. I admit, I was starting to feel _very_ nervous. There was nobody else around, the only noise I could hear was the rasping breath and the clumsy footsteps of the grunt yet the only sight I could see was a dark void.

"Excuse me, where exactly are we and where are we going?" I whispered, my breath trailing into the atmosphere as I dared to break the silence.

"You'll see." The grunt whispered back, his footsteps still echoing around the- _thud._ I walked into a wall.

Great.

Losing my bearings was the least of my problems, as I had just lost my only way of finding my way around this bizarre room. The only way I could think of getting around this situation was to release Gengar and make it use thunderbolt to illuminate my path. It was too risky though; I was in possible Team Rocket territory and if they saw me with a relatively strong Pokémon they could attempt to steal it off me; that didn't stop them in the Kanto region three years ago. I decided to try and pinpoint where exactly the grunt was headed by his fumbling footsteps. The footsteps sounded far away but were still distinguishable, and I started trying to inch my way towards the pinpoint of audio. My arms reached outwards as if I was about to walk into another cold, brick wall when I walked into the grunt again.

"...Got lost" I apologised to him, my face turning away in embarrassment.

The grunt made a 'TSK' noise and carried on walking, until we stopped at another doorway. Knocking quite violently, the door rattled as it got thudded by the gloved fist. An unenthusiastic voice shouted "Password?" through the slit of the shutters.

"RageCandyBar" The grunt replied, sounding equally as bored. And with that, the door swung open and my vision was submerged with light again.

I warily walked into the room and the damp scent increased, making me shiver. There were many pipes, some of which leaked a translucent liquid, crowded around the low down ceiling – I had to duck to make sure my head didn't collide against any. The floor was bare with concrete, as if tiles had previously been there and had been ripped off unprofessionally; the leaking liquid was splashing against it and leaving blotchy patches. Many other grunts were standing by the grey walls, some leaning on them, but they were all staring at me. My escort carried on walking towards the end of the room, and I nervously followed behind.

_I thought it would just be a simple "Okay, here is your uniform, go out and catch a few Ratata then you can go back home!"; not walking around underground with a total stranger! _

We carried on walking, until the shutter _slammed_ shut. I stopped walking and flinched, turning around. _Trapped._

"Whats the hold up?" The grunt asked me in annoyance.

"It just made me jump, s'all." I retorted, not meeting his glare and fixing my gaze at the floor instead.

"Humph."

We carried on walking until we reached a battered mahogany desk, the wood was chipped off on it to an extent to where I was questioning how it hadn't collapsed yet. Another reason why I questioned that was the fact that there was another Team Rocket grunt resting his legs on it whilst he leaned back on an equally as battered chair. Something about this grunt was different though – instead of having the conventional pink hair, his hair was a luminous teal. He was dressed slightly differently to the other grunts, too – his gloves were pulled up to his forearms, they were white instead of the regular grey and had an orange stripe around the top. His boots matched his gloves, although they only went up to his knees. He was still wearing the conventional jumpsuit, but his was partially unzipped and had a collar that was tipped with a gold streak. Of course, he still had the ridiculous hat on. The grunt I was following walked up to him – I could tell from his body language that he felt somewhat intimidated. _Welcome to my world._

"E-Executive Proton" _...Proton? Is that really his name? Proton?_ ..._Really?_ "I've got a new recruit." He stuttered at the smirking man, before stepping aside and leaving me in full view. I could see why he was intimidated – 'Proton' had piercing green eyes – and I mean piercing. They had a cold edge to them... something that made _me_ on edge. He had an unnerving smirk on his face too, as he looked me up and down. He rose up from his chair and waltzed over to me - I was pretty tall, but this guy was even taller as he looked down at me.

"What do we have here, then?" He asked; his voice making me even more nervous. It had an icy ring to it, something that made me wonder how these grunts dealt with him on a day to day basis.

"I ...uh... want to join Team Rocket" I replied to him, trying to avoid his glare. I was normally a confident person, but my confidence was slowly but surely breaking every time 'Proton' let out a chilling breath.

"Interesting. I haven't heard that before." He grinned at me sarcastically before walking back over to his desk. I reluctantly shuffled over to him again and put my hands in my pockets, holding onto one of my Poké balls for comfort. He collapsed back down onto the chair and resumed his leaning position, before asking me a question.

"Maybe we should begin with your name."

_Begin? Is this some sort of game?_

"Oh, uh, my name is Elizabeth."

"Elizabeth what."

_I don't want to give out my last name to this guy! I might think of a fa-_

"Come on, Lizzy, I don't have all day."

_Did he just seriously call me Lizzy? I can't believe it. I-_

"Don't waste my time."

"Sorry. My last name is Klarheit"

_Klarheit? What sort of a name is Klarheit? Who the hell has a last name that is the german word for clarity?_

"There. That wasn't so hard, was it? Just keep it in mind that if you continuously waste my time then you may come to regret it."

_Oo-er. What am I getting myself into?_

"I'll try to keep it in mind, s-sorry."

"Good. And refer to me as Sir from now on."

"But that grunt called you Executive Proton?" _Shit. Elizabeth - Do not backtalk somebody who has just threatened you._

I flinched as I waited for some sort of retaliation, but nothing came. Instead, a pretty angry looking expression boiled right at me. He shook it off though and replaced my question with another question.

"How old are you then?"

"18. Well, In a few weeks, at least. So I'm technically 17."

"Just on the cusp of getting kicked out into the dark. Where do you live?"

"Ecruteak city, though I was born in-"

"Just answer the question. Any Pokémon?"

_The question I was dreading._ I was still holding onto one of my Poké Balls as I replied "Yes, sir."

"What are they then?"

"Kabutops, Gengar and Tentacruel. All between level 45-50." A flare of greed emerged in his green eyes and I knew I had just said the wrong thing. If he attempted to steal them off me, although, I could release Gengar and use Hypnosis on them. Something Mother had always told me not to do was to use my Pokémon against people – but sometimes, mainly out of boredom, I used them against people who were getting on my nerves anyway. It hadn't stopped me in the past.

"Did you just say you had a Tentacruel and a Kabutops?" A voice echoed from the back of the room. I turned around and saw a grunt walking towards me – confusion apparent in his face.

"Y-yes. Why?"

"Because yesterday, another grunt and I were constricted out of the blue by somebody who looked like you. She came up to us screaming about some Beedrill and even when she beat us in a battle with a Tentacruel and a Kabutops, she still wouldn't give up. She ended up ordering the Tentacruel to use wrap on us before I surrendered my Raticate to shut her up."

_...Shit. _

Proton looked at me – his face glared with malice yet triumph.

"Did you seriously try and join Team Rocket to bring us down from the inside?" He spat at me, rising up from his chair with enough speed that the chair crashed against the floor with an ear-splitting smash.

"No. I didn't. Sorry to disappoint you, Sir." I glared at him, a new found confidence rising up out of adrenaline.

"You sure? I don't want to go into details of what would happen to you if you were."

"I'm sure."

"As much as I'd _love _to believe you - even if you don't mean any harm, you still attacked our grunts-" he clicked his fingers and a couple of grunts grabbed me by my arms, holding me back in case I tried to escape. "-Which means you did go against Team Rocket. And even if you do pledge your faith to finding out leader, anybody who stands against us in any form must be punished." He wondered over to me again, leering over me again, trying to cram himself into my gaze again. I held my cool but couldn't help but shake a little bit. _What's he going to do? Kill me? _ Suddenly, he shoved his hands into my pockets and pulled out the contents – including my Pokémon.

"Bastard!" I spat at him, losing the cool concentration I had been holding onto for so long. I never swore at anybody – but this guy had just stolen the only things I could count on as friends.

"Ooo. You're finally showing some spine. Archer will find _great_ use for these things. Besides – if you were so committed to Team Rocket, you'd know that Pokémon are not friends, and only tools for battle."

"Even if you were to use them in battle, You need the Ecruteak badge or higher for them to even pay any attention to you – and being in Team Rocket, you probably wouldn't even dare to try and fight a gym leader!"

"Way ahead of you, Lizzy." He smirked at me, reaching for my trainer card. He plucked the badges out of it one by one with a triumphant glare. "Wow – you _are_ strong, you've gotten all but the Blackthorn badge. That isn't a problem anymore – You need the Violet badge to even get anywhere now!"

I glared at him in horror, my heart thudding as the last ten years of my life were taken away from me.

"I'm afraid I can't let you into Team Rocket now. There's a high chance of you rebelling against me and that simply won't do. I'd suggest running home to your darling Mother and try not to blab about us to her. If you even dare call the police on us, then it might be the end of the line for your 'friends'".

"You're only a strangely dressed grunt though – I can go out there and raise more Pokémon and easily defeat you."

"Correction, Lizzy, I'm an Executive. I have more control over Team Rocket than you could ever imagine. I'll see you around, anyway." And with that, the two grunts that were restraining me dragged me through the door, through the pitch black tunnel and kicked me out back into the Subway.


	3. I'M A REAL BOY

**Okay this chapter is really short because it's legitimately more boring than chapter 1. And that is like a record lmfao**

**I also finally got myself around to make a cover of this ((i drew the other cover too but it didn't really fit with the story)) so hey**

**disclaimer: i do not own pokemon kthx**

* * *

Chapter 3: Damn boy!

I sat outside the subway door, emotionlessly staring at the paint-chipped walls. I hadn't even bothered moving from my spot from which the Rockets had thrown me earlier. My Pokémon were gone. My Mother's hope was gone. _My_ hope was gone. Not only that, but all of the effort I had put in for the last few years had been plucked away _one by one_ by an executive. No wonder my Mother was worried, and now, I had no idea what was happening to the only things I could call friends.

"Excuse me miss, weren't you about to join Team Rocket?"

I looked up at my thought intruder. A young boy was looking over me with confusion, as well as a bit of fright. I stared up at him and fixed him in his bright, blue eyes.

"Yes. I was about to join Team Rocket." I replied to him calmly whilst waiting for a flinch of retaliation. The boy simply just looked me up and down, before announcing something.

"You're a bad person, Miss."

And with that, he walked off, staring daggers at me as he went.

_I'm not that bad, am I?_ I asked myself, a bit shocked by what a strange boy-

_Boy. _

_That's it._

I stepped up off the floor and started speed walking to the department store.

_I tried to join Team Rocket as a girl – if I could somehow pull my appearance off as a boy, I could maybe sign up again and steal my Pokémon back!_

The plan seemed perfect, if not a bit insane. As the sun was setting, I strode through the city in determination, the skyscrapers flying past me as I went, until I came to a halt outside the tall, glass building I had looked into earlier. _Right then._

Stepping past the glass door, almost skidding on the mirror-like tiles in the process, I went straight to the help desk, which was being occupied by a black haired woman who looked like she was having as much fun as a normal Pokémon in Ecruteak gym.

"Excuse me, you do sell clothes right?" I asked the bored looking woman whom was filing her nails.

"5th floor." She replied, not even looking up to me.

"Thanks" I briefly replied, before walking over to the elevator, quickening my pace as I got closer. Another bored looking woman was standing in there.

"Welcome to Goldenrod Mart, what floor may I take you to?" she asked me in a monotone voice, once again not looking me in the eyes.

"Floor 5, please" I replied again, before I felt the lurch of the elevator rise up. The doors opened to reveal a crystalline floor, leading to several racks of badly fashioned clothes mixed within trainer supplies. My heart drooped as I looked at the dull, sagging rags which hung lifelessly from the contrasting silver hangers. I needed something to hide my curves completely, so I went straight for the large section in hopes that they would hang off my average frame, not betraying my curves. I grabbed a couple of grey fleeces and a pair of combat pants – all of which were too big for me, and made my way over to the velvet changing rooms.

_Mother of God._

The fleece was horrible – it was more like a poncho than an actual outside fleece. Then the combat trousers were so big that they kept falling down without the cords being tied up. However, they camouflaged all traces of a feminine figure, which was the plan, however badly planned out it was.

I walked out of the mart with a bag full of terrible fashion and walked straight back into the subway. As much as I hated the idea – having long wavy hair was going to get in my way – and I needed it cut. I made my way over to the hairdresser – whom was still looking at me suspiciously from the Team Rocket ordeal.

"What do you want?" He asked me with a hint of malice in his voice – a tone I was not used to from the usually friendly man.

"A haircut, obviously." I replied, trying to hold my cool against the accusing pitch.

"Which one do you want it for?" He asked me again, referring to my Pokémon.

"You mean the ones that were just stolen off me?" I squinted at him, rubbing my situation in. He then clicked what had happened and his facial expression changed from that of suspicion to one of surprise.

"You kind of need to call the police, you know?"

"No I don't. I'm sneaking in there in disguise and I need my hair cut to look more masculine."

The hairdresser looked at me with a confused expression, but let off the tension with a sigh and wafted his hand at the chair. I took one last look at my long hair and closed my eyes, dreading the outcome.

When I opened my eyes again I almost choked in laughter –my hair was now just above my shoulders and was e_xtremely_ messy. It wasn't entirely masculine – but it still looked more convincing than my original hair.

"Thank you, I guess" I laughed as I stood up from the chair. "How much do I owe you?"

"It's on me - considering you just had your team stolen off you" The hairdresser replied, sweeping up the cuttings of my hair.

I walked out of the subway and noticed that the sun had already set and the city was once again submerged in night. _I can do this. _I thought to myself rapidly, before realising that I hadn't got anywhere to sleep.

_Shit._

I considered phoning mother – but she would either think I was in Team Rocket and did not need a place to rest, or something had gone wrong and she would get the police involved which would endanger the lives of my Pokémon – which made me shudder at the thought. I couldn't camp because all I had was the new clothes and- _oh my god people are sleeping in the Pokémon center. _

I instantly walked towards the luminous doors of the center and looked around – surely enough, people were sleeping in the waiting chairs. _Bingo._

I settled into one of the orange chairs surrounding the outside of the room and stretched out my legs. I was still dressed in a suit but people looking up my skirt was hardly the cause of my worries.

_If I do manage to get in with the rockets – what happens if my ruse gets discovered – worst of all, what happens if Proton finds me?_

The very thought of the executive made me shudder out of disgust. His piercing frost eyes still leered in my mind and his sharp voice still scraped my ears – I would rather go through the entire day listening to my Kabutops walking on metal than listen to Proton talk again. As I shut my eyes and attempted to sleep, one word rung through my head.

_Bastard._

* * *

**So uh this is a crap chapter but review it if you want to ((I'd appreciate it if you did to be honest lmfao I wouldn't mind a little bit of recognition even if it is criticism)) I'll try and make the writing a lot more readable next chapter as at the moment even I'm finding it hard to read as it's just a constant list of shit lmfao but yeah next chapter is where the plot **_**reaaaaaaaaally **_**kicks in and I can put a little b****it of humour into it 8)**


	4. Lipstick (AND A PLOT CHANGE !)

**SO UH…. I KIND OF HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE LMAO**

**So regarding this plot – I started writing the story back in august 2012 whilst I was on vacation and truth be told it was meant to be **

**uh**

**PetrelxOC lmfao..**

**I felt really uncomfortable writing a story like that because I hate twisting the canons and felt as if by the fact that I was having a character who was already on very bad terms with Proton It'd be really disbelieving if she also had a close friendship with Petrel – who in my headcanon is like best friends with Proton – but do you know what? Sod it. This story is unpopular, I might as well make a tit out of myself and make a disbelieving story but enjoy myself rather than write things that have a weak plot if you get me**

**So yeah**

**In other words I'm contradicting myself and turning this into PetrelxOC. Deal with it.**

**To the very few readers ((very few)) who are looking at this like WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING PUT THEM DOWN HOLY HELL NO **

**I'm writing what I want**

**If you don't like it then go and look for more Proton centered fics LMAO THERES ENOUGH OF THEM but this aint one of them anymore. (Proton is still going to be a main character in it! It's just the protagonist is going to have a 'close' friendship to Petrel as well as being threatened by Proton) ((Petrel needs more love though omg he only has like 4 fics))**

**Also – I'm looking for a beta reader ;n; if anybody is interested, please tell me! I'm more bothered about literacy mistakes since I have a horrible tendency to type with no grammar (blame tumblr) which sometimes gets reflected in my writing~**

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Chapter 4

"Nurse – Help my Ratata – please!"

I woke up with a jolt to find myself sat in the Goldenrod Pokecenter, completely forgetting what I was meant to be doing.

"Oh, you're awake!" A voice nearby chimed. I turned around with my eyes half opened to see a girl a little younger than me looking at me. She, unlike me, seemed bright and cheerful, which could be due to her _very_ odd sense in clothes. She had a huge white hat on – and I mean huge. And her whole dungaree-influenced outfit seemed to be soaked in bows, and her hair was strung in pigtails that seemed to defy gravity. Holy hell – my hair! I suddenly remembered that I had most of my hair chopped off, and I mentally kicked myself.

_Elizabeth – you idiot!_

"So, why are you sleeping in a Pokécenter?"

_Why indeed._

"I'll be frank – I'm not completely sure to be honest" I replied, scratching the back of my head as I tried to pluck my memories out of my mind. Was I healing my Pokémon? Probably – I could remember something bad happening to my team, so I was probably beaten by a trainer surrounding Goldenrod.

"I hope you remember – but in the meantime I'd be a little bit careful. See that Team Rocket grunt over by the radio tower? He's seems a little angry."

"Team Rocket?" I asked, confused. "Team Rocket are always intimidating…"

_Oh my god._

"But please be caref-"

"They stole my Pokémon – Proton stole my Pokémon. PROTON!" I shouted as I stood up, grabbing my shopping bag full of baggy clothes. I quickly rammed the fleece over my shirt and put the combats on under my skirt.

"Proton? What sort of a name is Proton?" She asked, as confused as I was a few minutes ago. I didn't reply to her – instead I marched out of the Pokémon center and stormed right up to the grunt. Refusing to budge from his position, the grunt stared me down as I stopped in front of him, a flash of malice glaring through my eyes.

"Do you want anything?" He snorted with contempt, looking down at me as if i was simply a piece of trash on the floor.

"Well, yeah, you could say that." I replied with a flair of sarcasm, trying to deepen my voice. If only my mother knew that I was pretending to be a boy just to get into team rocket!

"Well spit it out then!"

_Hallelujah, he didn't call me brat! There is a god._

"I want to join Team Rocket." I imitated the voice again, slunching back to try and self-consciously draw emphasis away from my chest.

"Whatever. Follow me, short-arse." He replied, turning around and taking the same route I had taken the previous day. I couldn't tell – but this was a different grunt from the one yesterday. _Maybe if there was any luck – Proton may not be there! That'd make everything so much easier. Woah – wait. Did he just call me short-arse?_

I decided not to retort and followed the grunt obediently. If I was to start using sass, it'd lessen my chances of getting my team back. _Wow, it's not as if he's going to gnaw you with his Ratata._

"Did you just call me short-arse?"_ God damn it Elizabeth._

"Yeah, got a problem?" He replied, not even turning around as we walked down the subway again.

"Uh, nothing – fatty." _Elizabeth! Stop it! _The grunt stopped in his tracks and turned around with a smirk on his face.

"Fatty?" _Look what you've done now._

"Fat…ty" I replied, slowing down my wording this time. It was harder than it should have been due to putting on a deep accent as I spoke.

"Whatever, short-arse." He rolled his eyes and carried on walking. One of the things I hadn't thought of during my planning was the fact that I am actually shorter than most of the grunts. I'm just above average for a female, but short for a male. It didn't seem to be a problem though, as I could tell from the nickname "short-arse".

We went through the same access denied tunnel, the same blinding darkness and the same musky smell. At least this time I didn't bang my head. Or walk into a wall. When we finally got to the end of the tunnel, I noticed something was different. _I was at a different door._

Last time, the entrance to where the rockets were loitering was just an ordinary door – this time, it took on the appearance of a garage door. _Am I going to a different room?_ I thought to myself. Dread started to circle around my head – what if they knew who I was? _What if Proton is in there, waiting for me to crawl back?_

I shook off the dread and raised my head a little. I didn't care what happened to me – as long as I got my Pokémon back I could withstand any sort of mistreatment from Proton.

_That's if he's willing to give mistreatment._

My heart thudded as the grunt opened the shutters – and suddenly an overwhealming stentch of smoke came drifting out into my lungs. I couldn't help but cough as I squinted my eyes, which were watering due to the overpowering fumes, and carried on walking through the doorway. The shutter slammed behind me but this time I didn't jump – I was too concerned about the crap entering my lungs. Looking around, I noticed there were not as many grunts as there were in the original room.

_Can't blame them. This place is awful!_

I carried on following fatty and noticed that just as the original room, there was a desk with a person slouching on it. My heart thudded – I couldn't tell due to the smoke but from the posture I knew it was Proton. The colour drained out of my face and slowed down my pace. As much as I hated him and wanted to slap him silly for what he did to me – I was scared of him. I was scared of what he had done – or what he would do – to my team. I already knew team rocket were ruthless with Pokémon, but what about hostage Pokémon…

It wasn't Proton.

The smoke faded away to reveal an older man… an older man…

_Applying lipstick?_

He looked at me and raised an eyebrow as if to say "You hating?"

_But… lipstick?_

_What have I walked into?_

The older man, like a lot of the grunts, had pink hair – though his had more of a purple tint. He had a small goatee too, that seemed to be a little too rounded at the end. He also had a beauty mark – which looked suspiciously drawn on – under one of his eyes. Like Proton, he had a golden-trimmed uniform on, although this one was fully buttoned up, and his gloves only covered his forearms. As well as applying his makeup, he also had a cigarette grasped in his hand, which he was half-heartedly stubbing away in an ash tray.

Whilst I was staring at the bizarre scene unfolding in front of me, a grunt shoved past me – almost pushing me over - and started choking himself before he started spitting on the …older man.

"Executive Petrel! I can't find your Koffing! Are you sure you last saw it…" _Koffings. I hate Koffings. _"…Inside HQ?"

The older man put down his lipstick and glared at the grunt.

"Whatever. I'm a nice guy – I can let this slide. It's not as if anybody's going to touch that Koffing – isn't that right shorty?" He replied, before asking me something.

"I.. uh.. I don't know?" I replied, not fully comprehending that he was including me in this conversation – It's not that I couldn't concentrate because of the fumes – but I was staring right at his lips. They were distracting as hell due to the fact that they were now bright red. I'd never seen anything like it.

"It's not as if a grunt like you'd know anyway." He replied, rolling his eyes as well as rolling off his desk onto the edge of it. "I'm not a grunt." I corrected him in my normal accent – completely forgetting about my disguise.

"...Oh." He looked at me, looking a little embarrassed.

"Yea- EHEM- _Yeah_." I agreed, partially shifting the sentence into my manly façade.

"So _what_ are you here for?" He asked, looking right at me. I shifted attention from his lips and looked back at him – he had incredibly beady eyes – they kind of unnerved me.

"I want to, uh, join team rocket." I replied, not looking away from his eyes. _Crap. They're worse than Proton's. _

"Ugh – That's not my job!" He moaned, flopping back on the desk so dramatically it looked painful. I stood there awkwardly in silence – peeking over from the side of the desk to see if 'Petrel' was conscious or not. I was about to creep right up to him until I realised his beady eyes were actually looking at me. I quickly shuffled back and noticed my cheeks flushed a little. _Real manly, Elizabeth._

"Ugh – sorry, you'll have to go to Proton." He finally spoke, sitting upright again – but this time with a mirror in his hand, in which he was staring in vainly.

"P-Proton?" I stuttered. _Not Proton – anybody but Proton._

"Yeah – the executive in charge of recruitment." _God damn it._

"Can't you just do it?" I asked desperately. He looked up from his mirror and looked right at me again.

"Why? Do you like me or something?" He questioned me.

"Not particularly. I'm just lazy." He seemed a little disheartened. "Why, do you want me to feed your ego?"

Petrel raised an eyebrow at me again.

"Whatever, shorty. I'm a nice guy, I'll let you join my division without Proton knowing – you do have a Pokémon, right?"

"Nope."

"Just take this Ratata then." With that, he went into one of the draws and pulled out a scruffy looking Ratata. "One of our grunts just bought this back yesterday – it's useless anyway."

"Then what good am I to have it then?" I questioned him, staring at the ball with contempt.

"It's either this or Proton."

_God damn it._

I took the ball awkwardly and felt the rough scratches all over it. If the ball was any sort of clue to what the Ratata was like, I knew I was buggered.

"Right – what's your name?" He asked again, hastily getting out a piece of paper.

"El…" I started, almost betraying my name. "Elliot." _Great, I'm now my own brother._

"Elliot what?"

"Elliot Frank."

Petrel scribbled down my faux name... in his lipstick… and carried on reeling off instructions. It turned out I was now 19, I lived in Violet City and I was now part of Petrel's division. Woo.

"Right – considering you've avoided officially entering us, you can't really get a uniform."

"Don't you have one I could wear?"

"Yes – you can't really do much with it though."

_God damn it._

"Why not?"

"Because it's mine!" He started laughing hysterically, flopping back on the desk again. I looked around awkwardly and noticed a cupboard at the corner of the room. Leaving Petrel to his hysterics, I wondered over to the auburn cupboard and looked inside. There was a couple of uniforms hanging lifelessly in there – although they were massive. I turned around to Petrel again who was still tied in his own antics to even notice that I wasn't standing in front of him, and swiped one of the uniforms. I then crept inside the cupboard and started getting changed into one of the uniforms – it being even baggier than my poncho-like outfit. Thank god a belt was required.

I burst out of the cupboard and clumped over to Petrel – the boots being far too big for my feet. He sat up – his face red from laughter – and noticed that I had gotten changed.

"What?" he stared with a look of confusion, looking around the room for the source of where the uniform could have come from.

"The cupboard in the corner. It's a little too big, though." I pointed, the gloves falling off my hands.

"A little?" He asked, an eyebrow raised, while he examined the flapping uniform. Every time I moved I looked as if I was flailing.

"It's still a uniform – I can shrink it in the wash?" I said, looking over it myself. The good thing about it being baggy was that it completely disguised my feminine figure – which would have been a disaster in the making if it was to show off my curves.

"There's a wash?" He asked me, trying to hold in his laughter again. I still stood with a face like a plank. Looking disheartened again, he stood up and walked up to me. He was taller than me – but not as tall as Proton. That could have been because he stood with an over-exaggerated slump in his posture.

"You still need to dye your hair pink, shorty." He said, pulling the cap down over my eyes, before walking away. From the slam of the shutter, I could tell he had walked outside.

I pulled up my cap, and stared with a confused expression on my face.

I did it.

I was part of Team Rocket.

And I was enlisted by a man who wore lipstick.

* * *

**WOW so uhm **

**Yeah**

**Lmfao theres no hiding it this is going to have an influence of PetrelxOC in it. I don't even care.**

**Just saying but I have nothing against men wearing makeup – I just kind of picture Petrel messing around with it a lot due to him being the 'master of disguise'. **

**Wow look chapter 4 and no reviews but HELL I'M NOT STOPPING**

**Personally, writing isn't about aiming to get criticism – it's about aiming for enjoyment – which I'm enjoying a lot! 8D**

**Although I do feel really silly writing OC stories. They seem shunned on everywhere I go but HEY I DON'T EVEN CARE I like CharacterxOC stories. Haters gonna hate.**


	5. I Don't Need You To Make Me Regret

**Okay I'm sorry for a bit of a delay on this one lmfao**

**I started writing this chapter around the beginning of March but since then i've failed my science exams and my laptop has a virus and a failing hard-drive so it's kind of hard to update it when school is my main priority and i'm convinced my laptop is going to explode so yeah y'know fanfiction isn't a big priority at the moment and probably won't be until around june~**

**But yeah since my month has been a pile of crap I haven't really gotten around to replying to anything – I'm not being ignorant, I just never got around to doing it. Sorry! 8(**

**Also, this chapter may seem a liiiiiiiiittle weird but I'm also trying to portray the rest of the Rockets too (cough the girl staring at Proton through the glass in the radio tower).**

**Also, I'm sorry how bitchy Proton is turning out. ;w; I'm just trying to like, make him live up to his "Scariest and Cruelest" label.**

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Chapter 5

I looked down at myself again and stared blankly at my currently flapping uniform. Damn it. Although Petrel had left the room, I was still surrounded by grunts – all of which had fitting uniforms; all of which were staring at me with confusion. That was, until a girl walked up to me.

"You look kind of lost." She frowned at me.

"That would, uh, be correct?" I replied, frowning back at her.

"Do you want me to show you around?" She asked again, her frown wavering, as if curiosity was getting the better of her 'dominance'. There was no harm in it, I mean, it's not as if I knew where I was going. She led me out of the shutter again, the smoky trail following me outside into the pitch black tunnel. As I stood hopelessly in the dark, I tried to communicate with her.

"Where exactly are you taking me?" I asked her, looking around - dazed in the darkness.

"HQ, obviously." She replied, treating me as if I was a child.

"You don't have to treat me as if I'm unable to comprehend what you're saying, you know?" I asked her with an angry edge to my voice. The girl seemingly stopped walking, as I could not hear her footsteps walking along mine anymore.

"…Never mind." She dismissed my question, and seemingly started quickening up her pace as her breath started to rise rather rapidly.

"Are you okay?" I tried reaching out towards her with no success as my fingers merely grasped the air.

"Yeah – sure, yeah... I am yeah - I'm okay, I'M OKAY!" she shouted in confusion.

"You don't sound very okay, in all honesty" I replied to her – trying to get through to her.

"I just need to be strong, that's all." She started talking to herself – still walking without any sort of direction, before stopping and finally acknowledging me. "You wouldn't understand."

"Why not?"

"Because you, even though you sound like a girl, are a boy."

I mentally kicked myself.

"I'm a very, uh, femine boy?" I tried deepening my voice to try and reflect my ruse.

"It doesn't matter - you don't know what it's like trying to impress somebody…"

_Well – she's got that right, I've never really tried to impress anybody._

"...Trying to impress somebody important."

_Bingo._

"…Trying to impress somebody… like Proton."

…_For fuck's sake! _

"What the _fuck_ has possessed you to like somebody like him?!" I snapped at her, trying to grab her frantically in the air.

"I told you." She sniffled at me.

_Oh my god! This girl is absolutely pathetic!_

"I don't know who you are but Jesus Christ – Proton?"

"You don't know anything about him!" She snapped at me in defence.

"By the sounds of it, neither do you." I retorted. By this time her sniffles had turned into sobs. All of a sudden I heard a _kerchunk_! and the light of another room flooded the tunnels. The silloette of the girl danced into it and I followed her. I shut the door behind me as I looked around the room – it was just a damp, grey store-room and it was completely empty except for the girl and myself. She looked up at me with spite in her eyes.

"All I need in life is Proton… and Team Rocket." She broke eye contact and sunk onto the floor as she curled up into a small ball.

"Why are you so protective over him?" I asked, trying to walk towards her. She completely ignored me.

"Come on – I'm not going to bite." I carried on – ignored.

"Miss?" I tried again. She looked up at me with bloodshot eyes and finally replied.

"You're a girl aren't you?"

_Fuck._

"I – kind of am I, uh, guess?" I started walking back as she looked up in amazement.

"I knew it. No boy would ever take any sort of attention in me." She sunk back again, the pitiful sniffling returning.

"Why wouldn't they?"

"Proton told me."

_I am about ready to push this man off a cliff._

I started walking up to her – until I tripped over my over-sized boots. My fall didn't grab her attention so I quickly stumbled back onto my feet.

"I wouldn't listen to Proton if I were you." I reached out to her in an effort to comfort her.

"Why not?" She asked me, avoiding eye contact.

"Why _would_ you?" I grabbed her shoulder and squeezed it to try and subdue her tears.

"Because I…" She looked at me until a loud bang reverberated around the room. Her pupils suddenly narrowed. Her breathing started speeding up. I didn't even turn around as the dread hit me.

"…He's behind me, isn't he?" I managed to cough out, before I felt a rough grip clamp around the back of my neck, pick me up and throw me out of the way. I couldn't do anything but look in horror as I stared at the tall figure leering over the crouching girl.

"What do we have here? I heard rumours about two grunts walking around the tunnels without permission but _this_ is something I didn't expect." Proton chimed at the girl in an ominous tone. His voice still retained its razor-sharp edge that still grinded against my ears. He completely blanked me out as the girl tried her best to reply.

"I ... yeah." She tried to respond but ended up in a flush.

"You've gone behind my back, Kris." His tone started to become a lot more darker. 'Kris', who temporarily stopped crying, started again in a gush of hysterics. I continued to watch in horror as Proton crouched down to level himself against her.

"I-I'm sorry, Proton!" She sobbed at him, trying to hide her face from his piercing gaze by pulling her cap over her eyes.

"What did I say about calling me sir?" He clenched his teeth together and put his face right up against hers, lifting up her cap again.

"S-sorry s-s-ir" She coughed out, still holding onto her cap. She was cornered. The colour drained out of my face and my breathing became as rapid as hers. I wanted to help her, but I wanted to get out of the room and run back home – run into safety. I felt as if I was stuck in a room with a monster. I _was_ stuck in a room with a monster. And I didn't particularly want to be stuck in a room with a monster.

"Kris?" He asked again, his voice becoming ominously soft again.

"Y-Yes Proton?" She managed to reply.

_Slap!_

"I TOLD YOU to call me sir!" He slapped her across the face with such force she fell across the floor, his tone as vicious as his actions.

I gasped as I stared in horror and started scrambling across the floor towards the door. _Shit. Shit. Shit._

"Kris." He sighed, rubbing his temples as if he had made a life changing decision. "Who was that boy you were with?" My heart skipped a beat and I scrambled even faster towards the exit. I stumbled out of the door and started to close it with my foot.

"I .. don't know, sir." I heard her reply, before I grimaced at the sound of another slap. I got up as I heard Proton shout at her again.

"What were you even _doing_ in here?! You're supposed to be in Olivine _fucking_ city!"

I didn't want to stick around to hear the consequences, and so I ran as fast as I could. My senses were dazed by the darkness – I couldn't see anything, the dusk smell was still hovering around me and the only noise I could hear was the reverberating footsteps of my boots clanging against the floor. Stopping, I tried to catch my breath again. _What have I gotten myself into?_

What seemed like hours passed until I reached an exit of the shadowed maze. _Thank God. _I felt around for the handle and opened it with a _creak_. I squinted my eyes as the light blinded my vision. It was a lot brighter than the previous room – and once my vision was restored, I noticed that it was considerably larger and that it was filled with a considerably larger amount of people. I hadn't escaped team rocket as the surrounding people were _all_ grunts. I started looking around and noticed that their uniforms fitted perfectly and their hair was all completely identical to one another. I stuck out like a sore thumb. I went to close the door behind me when my heart lurched again. Proton had just burst through the door. I managed to conceal a _meep _and turned around as quick as possible. _I just need to walk away and he won't notice me-_

"Oi – you!" He shouted towards my direction.

_Crap._

"Me?" I asked in a quiet voice, not turning around.

"Turn around to face me, grunt." He ordered me – his piercing voice scraped against the inside of my ears again. I cautiously turned around and didn't dare to look him in the eyes.

"That's better." He stared at me suspiciously. _Oh god! Does he recognise me?! _I held my tongue as he continued to eye me up.

"Grunt – Can you explain _why_ your hair is brown and down to your shoulders?" He said in a dry tone which still retained a bit of sarcasm.

"I'm, uh, new." I replied, turning around again to walk off.

That was until he grabbed me by the shoulder.

"_Don't_ walk away from me. You'll have that hair cut and dyed now – or else you may regret it. Got that?" I turned around again and jumped at his facial expression; it was unreadable. A mix between anger, guilt, and pleasure. I hated it. I hated him.

"Yes, sir." I replied, remembering what happened when you didn't call the control freak 'sir'. He let go of my shoulder and stared at me for a while – as if he recognised me – but then shrugged it off and walked off. I let out a sigh of relief and regained my bearings. _I should kind of get my hair cut now – wait. I'm not actually joining Team Rocket am I? I'm just here to get my Pokémon back. I don't want to be seen dead or alive with this group of psychopaths anymore. _

I started following Proton. _If my Team is anywhere in this shit hole, it must be in Proton's office. …If he even has an office._

Other grunts looked at me and my baggy uniform as I started walking down the corridors. They were a stark contrast to the tunnels I had been trying to find my way out of: there was light, wallpaper, floors… it actually looked lived in. Although, the floors were made of metal, which was rather odd. I finally reached Proton's office and stared in through the keyhole. No sign of him anywhere. _Bingo._

I reached down for the handle, which was oddly cold, and rammed it open. _It's not even locked._

Running into the room, I noticed it was almost identical to the corridors, minus the metal desk in the middle of the floor. I shut the door behind me and walked over to the desk. I grabbed onto one of the drawers and opened it. _Nothing. _I started desperately searching through the other drawers in hope that I would find something. My hopes died down as I realised my team was not in here. And I had ran out of drawers. I started walking out of the room until I froze in shock – the door handle was moving. I stood as still as a statue until Proton walked in – his face was surprisingly calm until he saw me, in which it turned into a churn of rage.

"You _little shi-_" He shouted at me, running to try and catch me. I darted out of the way and he ran into the table – winded. My heart thudding, I burst out of the room and started pelting through the corridors again – this time, all of the rockets were looking at me. From the fact that a lot of their gazes were averted to my back, I knew he was behind me. _Damn it! What the fuck have I done now?! _I gave up hope and ran into the closest room I could, trying to lock the door behind me.

That was until I smelt a familiar, gut-wrenching smell of smoke. Distracted, I turned around and noticed Petrel was sitting in the middle of the room with a puzzled expression; cigarette hanging loosely from his mouth.

"Pet-" I started questioning until the door slammed open, throwing me onto the floor. Petrel looked up at Proton, his expression only becoming even more puzzled. Proton picked me up off the floor, by my neck, and pinned me against the wall. _Shit. _

"Right – you little shit – what the _fuck _were you doing in my office?" He snarled at me, his cold eyes burning into my mind. I started spluttering for air – _he can't expect me to reply if he's about to make my head pop!_ I glared right back at him in defiance, my expression trying to shout out a thousand words. That was until a wide grin stretched over his face.

"Oh. How _hilarious_ – you're Elizabeth!" he spat at me, letting go of my neck. I slid down the wall and landed on the floor, pouting. _Damn it Elizabeth! You're in for it now!_ My trail of panic was interrupted as Petrel finally spoke.

"El…_izabeth?" _He repeated, taking the cigarette out of his mouth as he stared at me in confusion. I rolled my eyes and looked up towards Proton again, who was now seemingly trying to laugh but was finding it impossible.

"Lizzy, Lizzy, Lizzy. You've just made everything a _whole lot_ more interesting, you know." He chimed at me, his face still seemingly possessed by a maniac who had just won the lottery.

"Good". I spat, trying to act confident, when in reality I was on the verge of crying. He squatted down to level himself with me.

"Elizabeth?" Petrel carried on asking himself, looking as if a bomb had just dropped on top of him. "Izabeth? El_izabeth?"_

"Oh, shut up Pet." He snapped at the confused executive, not averting his glare from me.

"That's Eliot. That _boy_ is Eliot." He replied, sitting down on his chair in exasperation.

"Pet – please don't tell me that the _master of disguise_ is blind to the fact that this little shit is a girl." Proton replied, turning away from me. I took that opportunity to inch away from him: until he grabbed hold of my neck again.

"Where do you think _you're_ going Lizzy?"

_I wish this idiot would stop asking me questions when I can't talk back._

"Pro – let the …girl… talk." Petrel intervened, standing up as Proton glared daggers back up at him.

"I suppose you're responsible for this, Pet." Proton asked with an edge of malice.

"Listen, the ...girl… wanted in. I'm a nice guy, I let hi- _her_ in." The older man replied, shrugging his shoulders as he walked over to the front of his desk.

"Whatever." Proton tried to calm down as Petrel leaned on the side of his desk, a pondering expression plastered on his face. "We can't exactly let her go."

"Why not?" Petrel replied, stubbing out his cigarette on the desk

"Because I said so!" Proton snapped back in response. "Right, Lizzy, you're staying here. If you even dare fight back, or even step out of line - you are going to regret ever getting wrapped up in our affairs".

I already did regret getting wrapped up in their affairs. Proton let go of my neck and stood up.

"I'll get a uniform for you tomorrow, and I'll have you taken to get a decent hair cut. Oh, and you're going to join my division - won't that be fun?" he growled at me, lilting the last words as he waltzed out of the room. The door slammed and I looked at Petrel, who was already looking at me.

"El... izabeth?" he asked again to clarify.

"Elizabeth." I replied, a strange smile formed as I did so.

_Well, at least I'm not dead... yet._

* * *

**Soooo Elizabeth got found out! Things should get interesting now. Also, sorry if the last part makes no sense, I'm writing it on my kindle at the moment!**

**Again, sorry this chapter took so long!**


	6. He's a Weird One, You Know?

**I'm on a roll again! Even though this fic isn't getting many reviews, I don't think anybody realises how much fun it is writing it! ;w; **

**Anyway, Haine-Chan asked me nicely if she could have a character in this story. Being the nice person I am, how could I resist? 8D**

**She's the creator of Cadence – I hope I've portrayed her accurately! **

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Chapter 6

I woke up with a stretch as the artificial light flooded my senses. After last night's …encounter, another grunt was sent to take me up to the grunt's dorms. Surprisingly enough, Proton had done some good as I had been supplied with the correct uniform. Also, it was particularly good that I got caught by Proton when I did, as I would have had to have had most of my hair shaved off. I wasn't too keen with having shoulder-length hair, never mind having a pixie crop, so only having to have my hair tidied up and dyed a bizarre shade of pink wasn't as bad as I'd expected. That being said, a lot of the other grunts w_ere_ wearing wigs, so I felt a little cheated. What's done is done, I guess. The dorm beds, though, were actually comfortable. They were just simple, wooden bunk beds, and they were all spread out across a huge room, so my sleep was constantly interrupted by other girls talking in their sleep and occasionally snoring. It was actually a relief to wake up to a half empty dorm. I looked under my bed and pulled out the new uniform, smiling due to the fact I would fit in it now.

That was until I looked at the skirt.

I picked it up half-heartedly and raised an eyebrow at the length. _This is worse than what I used to dress in when I was 15!_ I also noticed that the Rattata that Petrel had _so kindly_ given to me was also under my bed in a rather battered up pokéball, although my Pokégear was nowhere to be seen. Shrugging, I slipped the old uniform off and chucked it to the side of the room – almost hitting another grunt. I gritted my teeth and picked up the newer uniform cautiously, before sliding it on. There was not a mirror in sight, so I just went with my intuition and hoped to god that the skirt was not _too_ short. I started walking along the metal floor and noticed that I was no longer falling over the size of the boots, which was an added bonus! I picked up the tattered pokéball and slipped it onto the uniform's belt. _Hey, this is actually quite handy!_ Admiring the dull, grey belt I noticed that another grunt had woken up opposite me. It didn't faze me at all – I was a rocket now. I didn't look out of place of their ranks, I could strut around all I wanted without them even batting an eyelid. Confidently striding past the currently changing girl, I made my way towards the dorm's exit, until out of the blue she spoke to me.

"Wait- Wait, aren't you that girl who was a boy?" I flinched and turned around.

"I guess so?" I replied, my eyes narrowing at the accusation. The girl in question had sat down on her bed, and had raised an inquisitive eyebrow. She was just the stereotypical grunt, pink hair, dull eyes, the full monty.

"Ha! You _must_ have been desperate" she smirked at me. I felt a little intimidated by this and nervously smiled back in response. "Whatever, I can't say my excuse is any better".

I couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not, so I smiled again and carried on walking out of the dorm. Until she grabbed me by the collar.

"Wait, wait. You have no idea where you're going, do you?" She asked, not letting go of my collar. I grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from me.

"Not particularly" I replied, staring at her with mixed feelings. She let a cheesy grin slip and pointed towards the right of the corridor.

"Go down there, then turn to your left. That's where the assignment board is"

"Assignment boar…" I questioned until the girl shoved me out of the room and slammed the door behind me. _Charming._

I followed her directions and soon enough, met a gathering of grunts. They were all surrounding a huge board with requests from the four different executives. Some were personalised, those that were not had free time. Knowing my luck, and knowing Proton, I was probably going to be forced into terrorism.

I pushed through the grunts, the crowded conditions making it extremely hot, and started scanning the lists for my name – and sure enough, there it was. I groaned as I continued to read my instructions, which were to go out and steal Pokémon. _How the bloody hell was I supposed to steal Pokémon with a Rattata that looks like it's been dragged through a hedge backwards?_ Trying to make my way through the mass of pink-haired people, I noticed quite a lot of people were looking at me with wry smiles, making it obvious that they all knew about last night's escapade. And I thought I fitted in! I carried on walking as if I didn't notice, and I ended up walking into another girl. I blinked in surprised and looked up at her – she was almost as tall as Proton. She looked down at me with deep, brown eyes in annoyance. I muttered an apology and tried to wander off towards an exit. That was until she intervened in my path.

"Where _exactly _are you going?"

I looked up at her and started looking around to see where I _was_ actually going.

"Out" I replied, snapping at her a little bit.

"Well, _out_ isn't that way" She seemingly patronised me. "Are you sure you're doing your assignment?"

"I'm not too sure, to be honest" I confessed. Petty crimes would have been fine, maybe even robbery - but I didn't resonate with the fact that I had to steal Pokémon.

"That's not the answer I was looking for. Do your assignment – now. Or do I have to tell one of the executives about this?" She lectured me out of the blue – making me backfire out of shock.

"Christ – do you want a promotion or something?" I retorted, narrowing my eyes at her, before walking off in the right direction.

"Don't talk to me like that!" she shouted after me, following my steps as she did. _My time here just keeps getting better and better!_ Instead of ignoring my fears, I turned around and faced them.

"Well don't talk to _me_ like that" I snapped at her in defence. She paused before finally releasing a sigh.

"Listen, you're obviously clueless. Do you want me to show you around? I'm off duty" she asked, completely throwing me off guard.

"Didn't you want to kill me a minute ago?" I ignored her question, replacing it with another. Well, I had a point. Smirking, she pulled my cap over my eyes. "Follow me, kid." I raised up my cap in protest and stood like a loose nail for a while, unable to comprehend her cheek. Reluctantly, though, I ended up following.

It had been a few minutes since the taller girl had started showing me around and I had become none the wiser.

"So what's your name?" I asked, trying to break the silence.

"Cadence. Call me Cay, though." She replied, looking down at me as she walked. "Yours is Elizabeth right? Is Lizzy fine?"

"Actually, I prefer Eliza-" I responded, before being interrupted by her.

"So Lizzy, what are you actually in for?" She butted in. I pouted and instantly tried to think up an alibi. I couldn't exactly tell her that Proton had stolen my team and I had infiltrated team rocket to try and steal them back, especially after she created such a fuss about me not wanting to do my assignment. Then it clicked. Mother had made me join anyway. Aha!

"My Mother wanted me to join – she thinks it'll bring her and my brother protection if I'm a member. She's rather frantic about Team Rocket in all honesty – she seems to think that they have the balls to try and kill her in her sleep." I started snickering before realising I was actually speaking to a team rocket member.

"_Parents._ I'm in to try and support mine financially. In all honesty, I'm not keen on what team rocket does" she confessed, rubbing the back of her head as she did so. _I knew I wasn't the only one!_

"My family isn't _that_ well off, but we manage. We, well, they, live in Ecruteak city. My Mother works in Goldenrod's radio tower – as a receptionist – and my brother is still in school. I also got quite a bit of money from travelling, so…" I tried to dumb down my family. We didn't have financial issues and the only reason I had joined team rocket was due to my mother's selfishness. I felt a little sympathetic, if truth be told.

"What about your Dad?" Cadence asked me, intrigued.

"He _was_ a sailor…" I noticed as I emphasised was, Cadence had seemingly put one and one together and made three.

"I'm sorry" She interrupted me, clearly looking uncomfortable.

"What for? He didn't return from Hoenn because he met another woman. My parents have been divorced for well over 10 years now" I laughed at her discontented face. "Are you going to show me around then?" I tried shifting the subject as it was clearly making her feel edgy.

"Oh, right, yeah" She replied as if her head had been in the clouds. She started looking around for things to tell me.

"You know about all the executives right?" she asked out of the blue.

"I know of Proton, Petrel and _I think_ Archer is one too?" I guessed. I'm pretty sure Archer was an executive, from what I could gather from Proton.

"Archer _is_ an executive" She frowned at me. "There's also _Ariana_…" she grimaced as the name with a wavering frown. "…And from the looks of it, you already know Proton".

"What about Petrel?" I blabbed.

"What about him?" She replied, disinterest apparent in her voice.

"Well, he _is_ an executive isn't he?" I asked again out of interest.

"He's only fourth in command but yes, he _is_ an executive…" she replied in haste. "…speak of the devil" She muttered under her breath. I looked down the corridor and sure enough, the 'fourth in command' was lumbering down the corridors looking as bored as most of the other grunts were. I couldn't help but laugh a little.

"What are you laughing at?" Cadence asked me in curiosity.

"Petrel" I replied, smirking a little as I rolled the name off my tongue.

"You should cut it out while he's near you know." She replied, nudging me a little.

"Knock it off Cay, have you seen him? The guy has a purple goatee for god's sake." I started laughing louder than I really should of. Cadence nudged me again, but I still carried on laughing.

"And those beauty marks are what people covered syphilis scabs with in…" She nudged me extremely hard in the rib. "…what was that for?" I trailed off, glaring at her, before looking forward again and noticing that a very narked looking Petrel was standing in front of me.

"…Oh" I managed to whimper out. The shock didn't block out my giggles, though.

"That's rich, coming from a gender conflicted teenager." He retorted, making it clear that he had heard my offences.

"The same could be said for you, you wear more lipstick than I do!" I grinned back at him, trying to stop laughing. Cadence started nudging me in the ribs again.

"How do I know you're actually a girl, though?" he asked again, raising an eyebrow as he did so.

"I, uh, have… breasts?" I replied, trying to keep a straight face this time. _Bad idea. _A wide, unnerving smirk finally emerged from his face.

"Prove it."

Alarmed, I grabbed Cadence's arm and started walking off. She looked as blanked out as the next person, whereas I was suddenly a vivid red.

"Cay, what the hell just happened?" I asked her, still walking as fast as possible.

"I don't really know. I don't know much about Petrel to know if he's being serious or not" she replied, unbothered by what had just shaken me up. "You're kind of prudish though" .

I stopped dead in my tracks.

"Explain." I demanded.

"Well, you say mother, you have a name like Elizabeth and now that somebody has fli-"

"Don't even carry on." I snapped before turning around in annoyance, before realising I was running rather late for my assignment. "…which way is outside again?"

After several more tunnels, I finally made it outside. I was miles away from HQ though – somehow, I had managed to appear in Cherrygrove city. Although, considering I was probably the only rocket lurking around for miles _and_ considering the only Pokémon I had was a half-eaten Rattata, I didn't particularly want to be in a city. I cautiously walked around the surrounding forestry and made it onto route 29. It was daylight still, but considering it w_as_ January, it would probably turn dark soon. I started walking through the grass when suddenly a familiar sight appeared. The girl from the Goldenrod Pokémon center whom had told me about Team Rocket was walking through the route, followed by a Chikorita, and looked completely unfazed.

_Crap! I don't want her to see me as a rocket! _I thought rapidly to myself, before jumping into the trees, the grass tickling my legs. I stared in the darkness as she walked past – eyeing the Chikorita. _Steal Pokémon._ No, I couldn't steal Pokémon from a little girl – she looked around 10! Especially considering that I had previously met her. But still, she was oblivious, and the Chikorita _was_ out of a pokéball, and by the looks of it, under levelled. I gambled with my humanity and jumped out of the trees in a flurry. The girl still didn't turn around. I started crawling towards the Chikorita until suddenly, a younger boy appeared. A considerably tougher younger boy. I got off the floor and ran into the trees again in shock. _For god's sake Elizabeth – You're almost 18! You can easily overpower both of these twerps! _

Eyeing up the situation, the boy had alarmingly red hair, and the most boring, navy-blue outfit that I had ever seen. All of a sudden, the boy pushed the girl over. _Jesus Christ._

"A weakling like you shouldn't have a Pokémon!" He shouted at her in spite.

"I'm not a weakling" She replied in defiance, getting herself up. The determined expression on the Chikorita seemingly backed up what the girl was saying. All of a sudden, the boy let out a Cyndaquil.

"We'll see about that." He smirked. "Cyndaquil, use tackle!"

The Cyndaquil obeyed the boy's order and tried to slam itself into the Chikorita. Surprisingly, the Chikorita was too quick and jumped out of the way, letting the Cyndaquil skid into the grass next to me.

"Chikorita, use poisonpowder!" The girl shouted as the Chikorita let out a flurry of purple powder. I held my nose as it rained on top of the grass – I hated the smell of poison.

After a few rounds of tackling, the Cyndaquil was finally taken down.

"See? I'm not a weakling." The girl smiled at the boy. The boy shouted some abuse before walking off – but dropped his trainer card. The girl picked it up and looked at it before the boy realised what he'd dropped.

"So you're name's Silver…" The girl read, smiling as she said it. "Mine's Lyra!"

_This girl must be taking the piss. She's too nice!_

'Silver' turned around and snatched the card off Lyra, before running away again. Lyra smiled to herself and walked off towards New Bark town. I snuck back up out of the trees, dusting the dead leaves off my boots. They kind of were a pain – I really didn't appreciate them being thigh high. None the less, I trudged on with them. Until I realised I hadn't stole a single Pokémon.

I kind of accepted I didn't really have the balls to steal a Pokémon from a trainer – but there was one other alternative.

A few hours of walking later, I finally arrived back at Goldenrod city – and more importantly, at the game corner. _They give out Abras cheaply for prizes! Alakazams are strong, I'm sure Proton will appreciate it._ I marched into the game corner looking triumphant and walked straight over to the two old men who gave away prizes. The bright lights dazed me for a while – I never quite understood why the game corner had to be so obnoxiously coloured – and on top of that there was a musky smell that made me feel on edge. But none the less, I had to try and get at least one Pokémon.

"Ehem. I'd like an Abra please".

"Sure. That'll be 200 coins".

"…I don't have 200 coins" .

The man pointed over to the Voltorb flip table. Oh god. I was terrible at this game when I had attempted to play when I was originally travelling Johto. I think the most I managed to get was around 48 coins at max. I nervously sat down in front of the beaming man.

"Show me how you play and make my heart pound with excitement!"

_Ugh. _

I looked doubtfully at the cards laid out on the table. They just looked like nonsense. Naturally, the first card I picked was a Voltorb. _It's going to be a long night._

Several hours of cussing, shouting and storming-off later, I had managed to scrape up 200 coins. I stormed up to the old man and dumped all the coins on him.

"Give me that Abra."

He suspiciously handed the Abra over to me before collecting all of the coins. I walked out triumphantly and strutted towards the subway. After more stumbling through the dark, I finally ended up back in team rocket's HQ.

Then I realised I had to confront Proton again.

God damn it.

I made my way to his office and gulped. I grabbed onto the cold handle and creaked the door open. Proton was sat at his desk with a malignant grin on his face – almost expecting me to have failed. I was a little unnerved by his facial expression, but slid over to his desk and dropped the Abra onto the table. Proton burst out laughing.

"Is _that_ all you managed to get? You're seriously pathetic" He smirked at me, rolling the ball around his finger as he did so. He stood up from his from his chair, making a loud creak reverberate around the room, and grabbed the ball. I didn't know how to react, he called me pathetic when I had tried my hardest to get that Abra.

"Well… aren't you going to look at it, s-sir?" I asked, gritting my teeth as his expression suddenly turned dull.

"It better be good, Lizzy". He growled as a flash of white illuminated the room. The Abra floated on top of Proton's desk. Proton stared at it in confusion. I stared at it in confusion. It seemed to be glowing.

"Oh god, sir… I think it's…" I gasped in dread, before the Abra _popped_ and disappeared into thin air. "…Teleporting".

Proton looked like he was about to explode with rage. I braced myself for whatever would happen next. Instead, he just seemed to have accepted what had happened and stared at me.

"Lizzy. Tomorrow night, I'm taking you to Slowpoke Well in Azalea" He grinned. I didn't like the sound of this. Alone in a dark cave with Proton? I've had better days.

"Why?" I asked.

"Call me sir". He barked at me.

"W-why, sir?" I repeated, adding the control freak's wish.

"You should be honoured, only a handful of grunts are coming". He didn't answer my question, but roll reversed it as if I was the villain.

"But sir, I only have a Rattata-" I whined, rubbing the battered ball on my belt in annoyance.

"You _will_ obey me, is that clear?!". He snapped at me, slamming both hands on his desk as he glared.

"Yes, sir". I gulped, my palms becoming sweaty out of nerves.

"Good. Now go and get some sleep". He ordered me yet again, whilst sitting down back onto his creaky chair. I walked out of the room and closed the door cautiously behind me. I didn't want to go to Slowpoke well with Proton – all I wanted was my team back, yet I had no idea where they were. My mind was contorting with emotions – I was angry, yet sad, yet frustrated. Making my way back to the dorms, I ignored the glaring faces from some of the other girls. Were they jealous? God only knows. Deep down, I knew I'd swap with them any day as the situation I was in was something I would never had imagined whilst journeying through Johto. I'd never expect my own Mother to break down like that and force me to do something stupid – during my stressful few days in team rocket, I'd barely sat down to think about her, or Eliot. _Eliot._ I couldn't help but smirk at my ruse. In all seriousness, I was wondering where his Beedrill actually was. I couldn't care less anymore. I just wanted to know where my own Pokémon were, not some stupid low levelled bug Pokémon...

* * *

**3650+ words for a chapter, it's a new record oh my god.**

**I'd just like to thank Nocturne of Eclipse for giving me a few tips on how improve my writing! It helped a lot thank you. ;w;**


	7. The Downward Spiral

**Ugh I'm so sorry about this chapter being a bit delayed. The original file became corrupted for god knows what reason and I've had to write it all over again from scratch. 8| So obviously I became a bit unmotivated and on top of that I have school so haha ! gold star for my failing hard-drive **

**On top of that, the corrupted file set me back into a writing block so I'm sorry if this chapter is crap because in my eyes it is uwu**

**Brief warning: this chapter is where things start going in a downward spiral and it maaaaaaaaay need to be taken with a pinch of salt. ;w; **

**Aka Proton actually lives up to his "cruel and scary" side. (…if you catch my drift.)**

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Chapter 7

I watched the clock in anticipation as its ticking echoed around the room. I was waiting for evening to arrive – the time in which I had to accompany Proton on a mission to Slowpoke Well. Earlier on in the day, it had been clarified that I _was_ supposed to go down to Slowpoke Well and that it was not just Proton trying to intimidate me with hollow threats. Deep down, I _knew_ that he was trying to intimidate me, I couldn't help be reminded of Kris – the girl in the tunnel who had been on the receiving end of Proton's controlling nature. _What if I was to be her replacement? _ The thought made me shudder in fear, I did _not_ want that happening to me. However, on the lighter side of things, Proton had actually kept his word and I was not the only grunt accompanying him, and what seemed like an even greater kick in his teeth on his half was the fact that Cadence was going on this mission too. It was a huge relief to know that I was going to be going with somebody whom I knew and who was of no threat to me… at least I hoped. I flopped back onto my bed and sighed – it was taking too long. Far too long. Several minutes passed before Cadence attempted to sit on me. I got up in disdain as she stood over me with a triumphant looking smirk on her face.

"It's time!" she enthused me sarcastically, before she started walking out of the dorm. I grabbed my hat and shoved it on top of my hair, static cracks rustling through my hair.

We trekked over to the assignment board where a few other grunts were looming – all seemingly ready for the mission. I felt my Rattata's broken pokéball with uncertainty as I eyed the many clean looking pokéballs strapped onto the other grunts' belts. Out of the corner of my eye, Proton waltzed over to our group – his glaring expression rendering my uncertainty into complete and utter nerves. In silence, he signalled us to follow him and he started walking back to the tunnels. Cadence immediately walked behind him, whereas I trailed at the back and tried to make myself as unnoticeable as possible. We reached the dark tunnel and the familiar dank smell hit my lungs, forcing me to stifle a cough. What seemed like hours passed until I walked into Cadence – we had reached a ladder. I gripped onto the rusted bars and heaved myself up rung by rung, before I emerged under the Ilex Forest shrine. Ungracefully, I crawled out from under the shrine and stumbled up, Proton glaring at me as I did so. _Honestly, what is his problem?_

After a long trek through the forest, we arrived in the outskirts of Azalea town. Following Proton, we made our way around the shadowed outside of the town and finally arrived at the entrance to Slowpoke Well. Proton gestured for us to all to sink into the depths of the well, and so we all followed – minus one of the grunts standing outside for defence.

Into the shadows I delved, only to be pulled down by Proton. All of the other grunts were ahead – scouting out the well – they didn't notice the absence of their leader. I tried to shout but he covered my mouth with his hand – to try and dim out my protests. As much as I was internally crying – I had become used to being terrorised by him. I didn't have the motivation to argue back and simply took the abuse.

"Listen – Lizzy. If you mess this up – you'll seriously regret it" he snarled right in my face. I lifted my eyebrows as if to say '_I know. You've told me how many times?' _He let go of my mouth and I spat out the fibres from his gloves.

"Did you just spit at me?" He raised an eyebrow – a concerning smirk spreading across his face.

"No, sir" I sighed, rolling my eyes as I did so. "I was just simply spitting out the crap off your gloves". He looked as if he was toying with the idea of drowning me on the spot, but he left it and walked off towards the other grunts. Moodily, I trudged after him, avoiding the eye contact of the other grunts.

"Right. Team Rocket needs money". He announced. _Is that it? Has he seriously bought us all the way to Azalea just to announce that we have financial problems?_ "And we need a quick fix. I want you to round up as many Slowpoke as poss…"

"Slowpoke are terrible! Why would anybody want to buy a Slowpoke?" I shouted out, completely out of the blue. I covered my mouth almost instantly and went red in the face. _Why the hell did I just do that?_

Proton's eyes became shadowed and he carried on, ignoring my question.

"…ible, then cut their tails off".

I retched a little bit, trying to shake off the need to be sick. The other grunts seemed to look just as repulsed by the idea and looked around at each other nervously. I glanced over towards Cadence, whose eyebrow was twitching yet she still looked acceptant. Obviously, her finances came from Team Rocket, and if Team Rocket had no finances then her family would be down the pan.

"No complaints?" Proton continued, looking in my direction defiantly – almost teasing me to try and get another argument out of me. "Good."

We all disbanded from around him and went in search of the gormless Pokémon. I went straight over to Cadence.

"You're not seriously thinking of doing this, are you?" I whispered to her, looking backwards to Proton to see if he was looking.

"It's an order, Lizzy." She whispered back, turning around to start her exploration. In the corner of my eye, I noticed a Slowpoke hiding within the shadows. I panicked - I didn't want to see it suffer. I mean, it was _only_ a Slowpoke but why would I want to cut off its tail? I looked at it's vague expression and noticed it was looking behind me.

_Oh god, not Proton again._

I turned around and readied myself for another smack – but noticed that nobody was behind me. Proton was towards the general direction of the Slowpoke's gaze and to my horror he was already _ripping _off the poor Pokémon's tails. Another grunt was sided by him, almost looking green as Proton handed the raw tails over to her to carry. It was as if I'd been scared into a nightmare within another nightmare. I gazed around and noticed that Cadence was holding a Slowpoke. I bit my lip as I watched her actions with caution – she wasn't pulling off the tail. She was simply staring at it as if she was suddenly holding a bar of gold. She looked around briefly, before dropping the Slowpoke into water and walking off without hesitation. I couldn't help but laugh as I looked at her scared expression.

A few minutes passed and nobody but Proton had tore off the tails, it was almost as if he was enjoying it. Hell, it was Proton – he probably _was _enjoying it. He put down the last carcass and looked around, expecting to see tail galore. Instead, he saw every grunt staring at him in shock. I squinted my eyes and noticed he had a very, very angry expression.

"If none of you have any tails in the next half an hour – consider yourself dead. That isn't an overstatement". He shouted, his cold voice ringing throughout the well. I shuddered and looked back at the hiding Slowpoke. I couldn't avoid it – _maybe I could get in Proton's good books if I buckled in and did it. It's just a Slowpoke… Slowbro's are the bain of your team Elizabeth – you're doing your team a favour…"_

I reached out towards the Slowpoke and grabbed it. It's eyes were still expressionless, but they were looking at me.

"I'm really, really sorry for this…" I whispered to it, before I grasped its tail in one hand. I closed my eyes as I felt the Slowpoke fall on the floor – it's tail glued onto my hands. I looked at the limp tail and retched again. _What the fuck have I done?!_ Cadence looked horrified. I looked horrified. She shook it off and nodded her head in the direction of Proton.

I trudged over to Proton again, the tail starting to smell a little bit of compost, and stuck it in his face. He looked at me – still in anger.

"What?" He spat, as he held another oblivious Slowpoke. I raised my eyebrow and shook the tail around a little.

"Is that it?" He glared at me, as he ripped off another tail.

"What am I supposed to do with it?! I just _killed a fucking Pokémon!" _ I shouted at him, flinging it at his face.

"Woah, somebody is finally showing a bit of backbone." He taunted me, letting the tail slap him. It dropped lifelessly on the floor, among the growing pile of Slowpoke, making a _plop_ as it slid off.

"Elizabeth – you're forgetting that Pokémon are only tools. They don't have feelings. And call me sir" he patronised me, wiping the slime off his face. I glared at him with pure malice. This was an argument I couldn't win. I was arguing to a brick wall. I was about to turn around when I heard a scream ring out from the entrance of the tunnel – followed by a "THEY'VE FOUND OUT!"

I let out a _meep_ of shock whereas Proton's face lit up.

"Great – things are getting exciting now!" He dropped the slowpoke, rubbing his hands together in greed. "Lizzy – stand on top of that cliff".

"What cliff - sir?"

"_What cliff – she says – _Maybe the one in front of you?" He snapped at me again, before allowing me to walk off. Suddenly, I felt a vice clamp around my arm. "_If this mission fails – I'm not even going to hesitate to slam those things you call friends into the bin"_ He whispered dangerously into my ear. My pupils narrowed and I suddenly realised the stakes. He let go and walked off towards the back of the cliff, leaving me to creep over to the cliff. I positioned myself on top of it and looked towards the entrance, and to my surprise- Lyra was there. Hopping along with a Bayleef. I let out a sigh of relief, _most of the grunts have Zubats – that Bayleef stands no chance._

But, out of surprise, she had started to sweep through every grunt – including Cadence who even had a Misdreavus. I gulped – if Zubats were fainting left right and center – then what hope does a Rattata have? Lyra finally walked over to me and looked up with anger.

"What do you want, kid?" I asked, trying to avoid her gaze.

"Aren't you that girl who had her Pokémon stolen?" She asked me. My heart froze with shock and I turned around to Proton, whom had seemingly heard too as his ice-like eyes were now as ridged as the cliff I was sitting on. I slid off the cliff and snapped at her.

"Shut up – brat!"

She looked taken aback.

"Why are you acting like this?"

I refused to answer her question and finally released my Rattata – my misconceptions of it were that because it's ball was in such a shocking condition, so was the Pokémon. The blinding flash flooded the cave and revealed the small rat.

I wasn't wrong about the misconceptions.

It was already fainted.

I looked at it in disappointment as the Rattata flopped lifelessly on the floor.

"...I, uh" I returned it in embarrassment. _God damn it Petrel – you could have at least healed it at a freaking Poke center before giving it to me!_

I turned around towards Proton who now looked as if he was about to jump over to me and strangle me under the water. I turned around back to Lyra – and she was already gone. I ran to catch up to her and grabbed her by the arm.

"Listen – kid. I'm not really a member of Team Rocket, I'm just in it to get my Pokémon back." I whispered to her out of earshot of Proton. The Bayleef looked at me with distrust.

"You have a Pokémon though." She pointed out, looking at my pokéball.

"That's not my Pokémon." I whispered back, holding it from view.

"Whose is it then? Are you stealing Pokémon?" She looked disgusted.

"No! Well…" I thought back to when I had received it. '_One of our grunts just bought this back yesterday – it's useless anyway'._

She looked in horror and walked off towards Proton. I clenched my teeth in stress and hoped to god that Proton lived up to being an Executive – if he wasn't strong, he wouldn't _be_ an executive. She seemingly was not intimidated by him. _How the bloody hell wasn't a kid intimidated by Proton?!_

"What do we have here?" He smirked at her – from a distance, I could tell that his down talking was only the start of Lyra's unavoidable fall. "I am often labelled as the scariest and cruellest guy in Team Rocket… I strongly urge you not to interfere with our business." Un-intimidated, Lyra stood behind her Bayleef – her actions doing all the talking needed. I was expecting to see some sort of overly-beefed Pokémon, but instead, Proton sent out a Zubat.

A zubat.

_Are you kidding me?_

The Bayleef tackled it and one shotted it. Proton looked a little pissed off, whereas I stumbled backwards out of shock. He growled as he returned the battered-up bat and sent out a Koffing. _Fucking Koffing._

Lyra was ahead of the game as she returned the Bayleef and sent out a Flaaffy. _How the hell does a kid have such a substantial team this early on? She had a Chikorita last night!_

The Flaaffy used Thundershock and the Koffing deflated, drifting towards the floor. Proton looked absolutely livid.

"For a kid to be this good… I didn't see it coming" he growled at Lyra as she returned her Flaaffy and let the Bayleef out again.

"I thought Team Rocket was broken up!" She stated the obvious. I was still in shock from Proton's defeat – but indeed, I thought so too. I'd never stopped and asked why or how they had continued.

"Indeed, we were disbanded three years ago. But we continued our activities underground" _That explains the tunnels._ "A small obstacle like _you…" _he averted his gaze and stared daggers at me – making me flinch out of more shock. "…won't be much of a problem for our mission. I advise you to be very afraid of what is to come" he carried on looking at me – almost as if the threat was meant for me. Proton then walked off towards the direction of the exit, the rest of us following him with shame. Cadence ran up to me – holding a pile of Slowpoke tails.

"Cay… what are you doing?" I asked her, staring at the lifeless tails hanging from her arms.

"Proton wanted them for money" she replied, not even looking at me. Proton turned around at the mention of his name and fell back to let us catch up with him.

"Good work… Cay?" he said, repeating her name as if he hadn't heard it before. "Do me a favour and catch up with the rest of the grunts – I need a word with Lizzy" my heart stopped and I latched myself onto Cadence out of fright. She looked at me out of confusion and shook me off, giving me a look as if to say "what?". She walked off and left me and Proton alone in the shadows.

He grabbed my arm as he watched her disappear up the ladders and then rammed me against the wall again – with considerable force this time. My shoulders ached with pain as they collided against the rocky wall.

"What was that about?!" he shouted at me – not pissing about with expressions or intimidation. He was blatantly fuming at me.

"What was what abo…" I replied, before he smacked me across the face. My blood run cold as I reached up to feel my face burning.

"_Aren't you the girl who had her Pokémon stolen by Team Rocket?" _He mimicked Lyra's voice, making his pitch higher in spite. "Didn't I tell you what would happen if you told anybody?! How the _FUCK_ would a little girl know?!" He screamed at my face, becoming completely overrun by rage. My breathing increased as I became increasingly scared.

"I-I'm sorry! She's the only on…" I tried to explain, but only endured another slap across the face. This time, my cheek grinded against the side of the cave wall and became grazed. I touched it in horror and noticed a few specks of blood stood out from my gloves.

"The only what? The only one who listens to the fucking radio station?!" His tone quieted down as he eyed the blood on my cheek. Tears built up in my eyes as I thought back in regret at the Pokémon center.

"The only… person I told." I started crying, trying to cover my face with my hands. Proton pulled away my hands roughly – making one of my wrists crack loudly - making me hold it in pain. He put his face extremely close to mine. I looked into his eyes which now seemingly pierced my eyes. I was shaking so badly that even Proton's arms had started to shake from where he held me.

"I think we both know what will happen now." He smiled at me wryly, putting his hand up to my face. He rubbed my grazes with his thumb, rubbing the gravel into the wounds. I winced with pain and stared at him – not in hate, or malice – but begging for mercy. He seemed unfazed by the obvious pain I was in – in fact, he seemingly enjoyed it.

"But – do you know what? I'm going to keep your Pokémon. I'm sure they'd enjoy battling against _you _one day." I tried to gasp, but the tears I was now apparently choking with were preventing that from happening. All of a sudden, Proton turned around and punched me in my gut. I choked out and slid against the wall, the stones digging against my back. I started sobbing in agony as all of a sudden he picked me up off the floor and stared at my cheek again, which was now bleeding even worse due to the gravel.

"That was a nasty _fall_, Lizzy. You should get it seen to" he rubbed away my tears, imitating softness with threat as he walked towards the exit. I slid back against the wall and started crying hysterically, holding my throbbing cheek in pain.

* * *

**I, uh, told you it would be dark LMFAO.**

**This is probably the most awkward thing I've ever had to write. Ever. I never knew I could get so… y'know. Violent. **

**Don't worry! The next chapter is going to have nothing of the violent sort in it. Nothing. of. The sort.  
**


	8. It's Always Something

**After that psychological mess of a chapter, I'm surprised if you're still reading this fic. I don't blame you if you stopped after last chapter, but if not, then HEY THERE.**

**As I said, this chapter is going to be a lot more light-hearted. Like, a lot more. Well… I hope.**

* * *

Hours passed as I sat outside the infirmary down in the Rocket's HQ. I sat as if I was a hollow statue – emotionless as I tried to sink in what had happened. I had taken my gloves off for the first time in a while and was currently fixated on stroking my cheek; it felt as rough as the wall it had collided on. _This isn't fair_… Finally, I got called in – and yet again, smelt familiar, corroding smoke. But this time – It wasn't Petrel. It was just an ordinary grunt whom was slumped back at his desk, a smug expression upon his face. He clicked his fingers and ordered me to close the door. Obediently closing it, I went to sit down in the chair opposite him once I heard the _click_ of the lock chime behind me.

"What's the issue?" He asked, stubbing out his cigarette as he leaned forwards towards me. I unenthusiastically pointed at my cheek.

"Damn – that's nasty. You haven't even cleaned it up!" He smirked. I shrugged as I slumped back into my chair, the velvet padding cushioning my newly-bruised back.

"How did you even do it?" he asked me, slumping into his chair simultaneously.

"Fell" I grunted as I retold Proton's alibi, looking towards the side of the room as I tried to avoid the grunt's amused grin.

"Proton doesn't have any luck picking his girls – they're always falling" He laughed, trying to lighten the mood. I wasn't having any of it. _Besides, how does he know I'm in Proton's division?_ "Come here, let me have a look at it".

I obediently got up out of my chair and walked over to him. He stood up and investigated my cheek, prodding it about with his fingers. _Doesn't this idiot realise that this is extremely painful?!_

"Are you stupid or something? You're letting it heal up _over_ gravel" the grunt nagged at me, his tone becoming more serious. I shrugged again. "That means it _may _get infected" I raised an eyebrow at this point. "I've got to remove the gravel. That's under your skin." I snapped back into action and slapped his hand away. _There is no way he is touching my cheek. _

"Don't look too alarmed… it's only a few bits and your skin hasn't completely scabbed yet" _Elizabeth – do you want this to scar or not?_

"Whatever" I gave in, revealing my grazed face again. He got out a pair of tweezers from his draw and started picking out the pieces of gravel. I winced every time he picked out one of the stones, an annoying itch travelling through my cheek every time he dropped them on the floor.

"Right, all done! See – that wasn't so painful, was it?" He announced. I opened my eyes and tried to look at my cheek instinctively, but couldn't avert my gaze that low down. I turned around to thank the grunt and noticed he was leant against the desk – lighting another cigarette.

"Let me guess – you're part of Petrel's division?" I asked, throwing the chance of a thank out of the window. Perking an eyebrow up, he inhaled the toxic smoke, a smirk spreading across his face.

"You could say that".

"What do you mean _I could say that_… you either are, or you aren't" I hastily replied as I started coughing through the smell of the smoke.

"Why would I be part of Petrel's division?" He asked again as he exhaled the smoke, hopping on top of the table as gracefully as a Graveler trying to do ballet - I couldn't help but laugh as he almost rolled off the table.

"Well – you're chain smoking, which seems to be a common theme whenever I see him" I shrugged, smiling this time as I walked back over to the padded chair. I took in my surroundings – the infirmary was a lot different to the corridors. It was painted a luminous white and had several diagrams depicting human anatomy. The desk was almost identical to Proton's desk, but the chairs were wooden with a deep, crimson lining. It also stank of lingering cigars, much to my lungs' dismay. My mind was set on the rather nauseating smell until a series of clattering rung from the desk and I swiftly averted my attention to it – to be faced with the grunt crawling across the table. To make it even more awkward, he stretched his arms over to my chair and started snaking his way across me – eventually stopping face to face with me. I started shaking out of nerves; _what on earth is going on in this madhouse?_

"You're shockingly observant, _Eliot_" he breathed directly into my face, smoke enveloping my senses. _Woah – wait, did he just call me Eliot? Wait, wait. Is this Petrel? What._

"W-what are you doing?" I coughed, extremely confused by the situation unfolding in front of me. I stared into the grunt's eyes and sure enough, they were the same beady eyes belonging to the bizarre executive I'd crossed paths with the previous day.

"EXECUTIVE PETREL! WE FOUND YOUR KOFFI…" The door suddenly burst open. I turned around, the hasty entrance snapping me back into reality. It took me a moment to realise that what had turned out to be Petrel was almost completely on top of me. Blushing, the grunt whom had walked in darted back out as if he'd witnessed a murder. I turned back around and faced Petrel again, who looked like he was about to burst into hysteric laughter.

"P-Petrel?" I asked, my eyes widening as I realised exactly what was happening.

"Hello, Eliot" he grinned in acknowledgement. I hastily tried to push myself away from the situation, and succeeded to some degree. The chair had completely fell backwards and had propelled Petrel to the other side of the room with a loud crash. Gasping, I stumbled up and ran towards him but couldn't help but laugh as I looked at his facial expression.

"You look… stoned, Petrel" I giggled, covering my mouth with my hand as I tried to show concern.

"How old are you really, Eliot?" Ignoring me, he looked sincere as he questioned me.

"Please, call me Elizabeth. And I'm 17 – 18 in a few weeks, actually" I replied, kneeling down to his side. He sat up instantly.

"But Eliot is a g_reat_ name!" he shouted with shock.

"It's the name of my brother, Petrel…" I replied, becoming a little exasperated. "Wait – wait, where did your goatee go?!"

"I shaved it off because I was so ridiculed by you" he looked disheartened. Guilt-ridden, my heart sank. He then perked up again and literally _tore off _his face.

"I'm only joking. I'm not getting rid of this for anything" he laughed as he revealed his true face and his terrible taste in facial hair, flinging what appeared to be a mask away. It seemed mean, but years were literally put _on _him. There was one thing different about his actual face though: his eyes were seemingly softer. This perked my interest even more and my mouth opened as if he had just told me he was my father.

"Don't look so shocked! I'm the master of disguise" he proudly announced, closing his eyes at his self-recognition. Suddenly, I stood on top of him and peered down at his face. Curiosity struck and I forced his eyelids open again, looking to see if his eyes really had drastically changed or if I had been inhaling too much of his second-hand smoke.

"Elizabeth, what are you do…" he looked mortified as I glared down at him.

"I… don't know?" I responded, not completely sure what I _was_ doing as I let go of his face and pondered. _Seriously Elizabeth – and you wonder why you've never had a relationship! _I then noticed that his eyes had flickered down towards my chest.

"Hey – you were right!" He laughed – amused by his own joke. I flinched with dread as I remembered 'prove it' and covered my chest from his view, stumbling back towards his desk. He followed my lead and sat down next to me, lighting yet _another_ cigarette.

"You're going to kill yourself if you keep smoking" I huffed at him, eyeing the cigarette with hate.

"Theres no loss – I mean, I already _have_ syphilis scabs" he grinned at me, referring to one of my previous offences. Quickly, I snatched the cigarette out of his hand.

"Wait – I didn't mean it! Give it back!" he completely flipped, revealing a childlike state as he tried to snatch it back off me. Grinning, I stood up on top of the desk and held it up as high as possible.

"You're not dying while I'm around!" I taunted him as he tried to stumble up on the desk with me. The combined weight made it wobble and creak, but he had suddenly stretched himself up to the cigarette and was franticly trying to grab it from my hands. He had almost clutched it as the door opened again and we both looked in shock.

Proton was looming through the doorway, leering at me with malice.

* * *

Petrel seemed unfazed by the new visitor, but I on the other hand instinctively froze dead on top of the desk – my muscles seized out of fright.

"Hey, Lizzy!" He grinned at me, blanking out Petrel completely. "Your cheek looks rather red – are you happy to see me?"

My vocal chords didn't respond as terror pumped through my blood stream. I reached out and touched my grazed cheek protectively.

"She looks _ecstatic,_ Pro" Petrel answered the question for me, sarcasm apparent in his voice; he jumped off the desk and waltzed over against the green-haired marionette.

"Who wouldn't be?" he joked, before forcefully grabbing onto my wrist again. I tried to pull it away, but at the same time he pulled me off the desk, causing me to fall straight onto the floor. I flinched as pain coursed through my arm, making me look up at Proton with yet more pitiful mercy stares. He roughly pulled me up again, and locked me into his arms.

"Lizzy and I were about to go on a walk, actually" He announced. I stared at Petrel in desperation, shaking my head franticly in disagreement.

"Well – actually" Petrel responded, taking a step closer to Proton. "_Elizabeth_ and I were just _debating _my smoking habits. I think she's…" he grabbed onto one of my arms, "…much happier where she is."

_Did that really just happen? Am I getting saved from Proton by a chain-smoking man with a goatee?_ Proton refused to let go though, and simply stared down the older man.

"What makes you think that, Pet?" Proton growled in a threatening manner, taking a step back with me – my arm flopping out of Petrel's grasp. Petrel was ahead of the game though, and quickly snatched it back.

"Because apparently, I'm a nice guy. And this girl doesn't like nice guys wasting their lives away" he suspiciously grinned, before he reached out with his other arm and pulled Proton's cap down over his eyes. Proton instantly let go of me to lift his cap back up, and I seized the opportunity of escape from his grasp; I ran directly into Petrel and hid behind him, grabbing onto his sides for protection.

"Oh – what now? Is Giovanni out of the window now? _Oh, look at me, I'm the master of disguise! Hail Giovanni!" _Proton spat at Petrel as he mimicked him, ramming his hat off his head with anger. I suddenly felt a shake start to surge through the older man's body – _was he scared of Proton too_?

The younger man didn't wait for a response and finally stormed out of the room, slamming the mahogany door behind him, managing to completely break it off its hinges. I stood shaking in fear, unable to comprehend what just happened. Petrel, on the other hand, started giggling as if Proton had just confessed his undying love rather than mimic and spit.

"Your face!" His giggling turned into frenzied laughter. Intimidated, I instantly let go of his sides and then the realisation hit me that I had been holding onto a stranger's sides. _Elizabeth! You have more balls than this! You could have just kicked Proton in the… no, scratch that. _Regaining confidence, I walked towards the door in an attempt to abandon the inappropriate laughter.

"Good night, Petrel!" I shouted over his hysterics, and slipped out through the door frame.

* * *

I finally made my way back to the dorms to be overwhelmed by a buzz of gossip relating to the Slowpoke well mission. Not wanting to be reminded of the nightmare that had occurred there, I pulled my cap over my ears and collapsed onto my bed.

"Psst – did you hear about that girl who completely wiped out Proton?"

"Or how about the girl that Proton wiped out?"

"Wiped out? I heard more…"

Overhearing the comments, I buried my head in my pillow to try and escape the thought of being 'wiped out' by Proton again.

"I'm kinda jealous, I'd _love_ to be noticed by him…"

"Are you kidding me? He's the scariest one going!"

"You mean the most _attractive_ one going!"

I mentally cringed. What was it that all these girls found so intriguing about Proton? _Maybe I'm too emotionally cold to even pick up on if I find somebody attractive or not…_

"_The one_ must be somewhere in here! She's not exactly going to be attempting to talking to that weird executive – _what's his name… _Peter? is she? Especially after all the attention she's getting off Proton…"

I instantly sat up, completely unnoticed. This was getting a little _too_ accurate.

"I've heard that she's that girl who pretended to be a boy…"

Instantly, most of the dormitory cast their gazes to me. I felt my face go warm; I blushed into a crimson red and started thinking up with a comeback, but the words couldn't slip out of my mouth – not with all of these people looking.

"Yeah! I've heard that too!"

"Pfft – I've seen it!"

_Where the hell are they getting these assumptions from? I hate the guts out of Proton! Hate doesn't mean love!_

"The blushing says it all…"

I snapped.

"For god's sake – I wouldn't touch Proton even if I was paid to! He's fucking terrifying!" I shouted, interrupting the rapid build up of accusations. Everybody quickly silenced their selves and stared at me as if I was an alien.

"…Told you he's intimidating!" a voice finally broke the noiseless room and erupted the conversation back into full swing. Slapping my forehead out of exasperation, I sunk back onto my bed and indulged in the rumours again.

"She's only saying that because she doesn't want her secret to get out!"

"Maybe she's the one who made it up and doesn't want anybody to know because we might tell Proton"

"…Maybe _we_ should tell Proton"

I sat bolt upright again.

"Maybe we shouldn't" I emphasised, interrupting the gossip again.

"Why shouldn't we?" a voice rung out from the opposite side of the room.

"Because I'm injured enough as it is" I replied, biting my tongue as soon as I realised what I had said. A few giggles emerged from the corner, but the rest of the room fell eerily silent. I felt eyes burning against my cheek as out of the blue, a cold whisper sliced through the silence.

"…_She likes it rough_".

I stood up from the bed in anger as the whole dorm burst into laughter, almost hitting my head on the top bunk in the process, and stormed out of the room.

"Jesus Christ – I'm only seventeen!" I snapped at my audience, before slamming the door behind me. The door quickly opened and Cadence appeared, this time without her wig on. It took me a few minutes to register the change from short, pink hair to long, curly, blonde hair.

"Oh my god – what the hell have you done to your face?!" She fretted, peering at my cheek as if it was glaring at her.

"Oh my god – what the hell have you done to your hair? Just kidding, I fell over" I replied, allowing her to examine my graze over. She completely ignored my excuse and jumped right down my throat about Slowpoke well.

"So what did you talk about with Proton? You looked pretty scared"

"We planned our future wedding. And I'm pregnant" I replied sarcastically, hinting that I wanted to drop the subject. But still, she dug deeper.

"No seriously – tell me Lizzy!" she seemed desperate to know, suspiciously desperate.

"Well – let's say we both found out that I am easily pushed over" I rolled my eyes at her, before walking away down the corridor. My footsteps echoed around the corridors as I walked around in solitude, before Cadence popped back up into my conscience.

"So what about that rumour earlier? The infirmary door rumour" she desperately tried to dig out any form of information.

"Well, I can safely say that Proton is a big ball of anger" I replied, cold as ever. Silence reverberated around the hall as I stopped in my tracks, Cadence imitating me.

"Not about Proton – about Petrel".

I suddenly felt defensive. "What about Petrel?"

"One grunt said you were, I, uh, getting intimate" she admitted, looking a little embarrassed as she said it.

"Jesus Christ! What am I, a prostitute?" I retorted, shuddering at the thought of more intimacy. Then it hit me – a grunt had walked in on his 'snake impression'. _Oh my god. _

"Well, did you?" she replied, not buying my retaliation.

"Well… I don't know if it was intimacy or not? One minute he was sitting on the desk, the next he was using me as a bed!"

Cadence looked mortified.

"Ugh, Cay, don't get the wrong idea. Nothing happened" I blatantly lied. What _didn't_ happen? I had been fooled by a disguise, stolen cigarettes, sexually harassed, pulled on the floor by a lunatic and had been laughed at by an equally as weird lunatic _as well _as being fought over by said lunatics.

"Whatever, Lizzy. We've got tomorrow off, do you want to go to national park?" she thankfully changed the subject with the most normal proposal I had heard in several months. Still, I couldn't shake off the doubt of Proton; he'd clearly have something to say about it, which could resort in symmetrical cheeks. And strangely enough, I couldn't stop thinking about Petrel…

"Lizzy?" Cadence snapped me back into reality, freeing me of doubts.

"I… yeah, yeah I would like to go" I agreed, submerging myself back into my imagination. In my life, I had never really felt respect towards somebody – and now I actually respected one of the people who I was always told to show uttermost disrespect to as a child. _Aha, next you're going to tell yourself that Proton is a nice person…_

* * *

**Wow so I've never seen a chapter drag on so much as this one – it's even worse than the first chapter which is like a world record LMFAO**

**Also, I don't /think/ the next chapter will have any violence… but, knowing me, it'll happen so just keep an eye out towards the start.**

**Also, I've just realised that I named the grunt whom seemingly had a thing for Proton in chapter 5 'Kris' – this is not to be confused with the female hero from Crystal version! I only just realised their names were the same last night and kicked myself for it. 8|**


	9. Understanding

**Wow so... last chapter actually embarrassed me a lot LMFAO I don't… want to read through it again.**

**It was terrible. I'm not 100% sure **_**why**_** I wrote it because it isn't actually in my story plan? So now I've just catapulted myself into doing two chapters I wasn't supposed to write... so I'm sorry if this turns out to be terrible. **

**#lackofselfconfidence**

**The only good thing I've got from this chapter is that I made it a new cover. \m/**

* * *

The morning sun blocked my senses as we emerged out of the subway into a frost-bitten Goldenrod; crisp wind scratched at my cheeks and nipped at my graze. Cadence seemed to read my thoughts as we both shivered in the cold, looking hopeless as the wind blew around our hair. Still, the cold weather wasn't enough to mask the suspicious glares returning from the gorming crowds – I was used to it from my first run-in with Team Rocket, but I wasn't sure Cadence was really appreciating the global disproval. _Aha, I beat her at something._ We started shuffling towards the National park, the exposed skin on our thighs turning as red as the logo on our shirts, and finally reached our destination.

"C-Cay, are you sure this is a g-good idea?" I asked her, my teeth chattering as the cold atmosphere gripped my mouth.

"Y-Yeah, I m-mean, it's better than staying in HQ all d-day" she replied, pulling her hat over her ears in an attempt to keep her ears warm.

"T-they might not even l-let us particip-pate" I tried to point out to her as we stood outside the gate.

"E-even if they d-don't, we can still s-sit and talk" She replied, before hastily walking inside the gate. I followed her, and as soon as I entered the warmth embraced my shivering frame.

"We could just stay in here?" I replied, recovering from my cold-induced stutter. Cadence acted as if she was on a mission and ignored me, before storming off towards the park-keeper.

"Hey! I'd like to join the bug-catching contest – and so would she" she asked, ignoring the keeper's complete look of horror as he stared down at her uniform.

"Don't look so shocked – we're off duty" she carried on. I nudged her in an attempt to show her that the keeper was _not _buying it. She ignored me again.

"Well, I, uh, have to take your Pokémon off you…" the keeper finally replied, albeit with a shaky voice. Cadence instantly responded and gave him two balls.

"And you, too" he nodded in my direction.

"I only have the one" I replied, picking up my now-healed Rattata and spinning it around my finger. The keeper looked hesitant, but carried on reeling off rules and restrictions to us.

"You're only allowed to use 20 competition balls… and you have a time limit" he nervously instructed us, before literally _pushing _us into the freezing park.

"Wow, what was up with that guy?" I asked, brushing my arm where he had pushed me.

"I'unno, he's probably nerved up because of our uniforms" Cadence replied, walking off as she gave me my answer. I watched her walk to the other side of the park until I realised I was by myself. Running – I tried to catch up with her… until I realised I was smack bang in the middle of tall grass. Confidently, I held my Rattata as I tiptoed through the grass – bug Pokémon were weak – I had nothing to be scared about.

"SCCCCCCYYYYYYYYYYY" a harsh shriek rung behind me, catching me off guard. I turned around almost immediately and notice I was completely towered over by a Scyther. I fell over and landed flat on the floor, groaning as the floor failed to cushion me from pain. _Uh-oh, I guess bug Pokémon aren't weak…_

"Go Rattata!" I shouted for the first time – watching in hope as the clearing became illuminated with white. The Rattata stood its ground against the Scyther… which hopelessly over-powered the gutsy rat.

"R-Rattata, use Hyper Fang!" I ordered it off the top of my head – and luckily, the Rattata actually _knew_ Hyper Fang. It charged up towards the Scyther, which deflected the bite with it's huge scythes. _Huge scythes._ Watching in desperation as the Rattata kept trying to get an attack in, my mind trailed elsewhere as the clatter of a battle unfolded before me. _Kabutops._ The scythes were reminiscent of my first, obscure Pokémon.

* * *

"_Dewgong – use Aurora Beam!"_

"_Avoid it with Aqua Jet, Kabuto!" _

_The colliding attacks shook the ice-crusted gym to the core. Kabuto sprang out from under the ice and crashed itself against the gleaming, white Dewgong. It bounced off it as if nothing had happened, and flung back against another wall. The Dewgong started sliding towards the quivering fossil, and I couldn't help but cry out._

"_Kabuto! Watch out!" _

_The fossil managed to scuttle out of the way as the giant seal attempted to body-slam it. _

"_Good! Now use Mega Drain!" _

_Kabuto flung itself back onto the seal and instantly started draining it of fluids. Instantly restored, it slid off the seal and carried on looking it right in the eye. _

"_Dewgong! Use Icy Wind!" the seal let out a gasp of cold air, that started making Kabuto quiver even more. None the less, it still stood strong. _

"_Counter it with Rock Tomb!" I shouted, expecting this to be the final move. Rocks suddenly shot up out of the ground and buried the seal – no movement. The skier withdrew the Pokémon in defeat, making me turn around with joy towards my tiny-but-dangerous Pokémon. Until I noticed it was gleaming white. In astonishment, I watched as it's anatomy shifted from a helmet-sized fish into… into… holy hell._

_My Kabuto had turned into a rather big Pokémon reminiscent of a shell fish – except it had two gleaming scythes protruding from it's arms._

"_What the hell is it?!" I asked out loud, looking in confusion at what my Kabuto was now. The skier looked equally as confused, before clicking._

"_It's a Kabutops!" _

"_Kabuto…ps?" I repeated, walking up to my new team member._

"_Kabu!" It replied, slipping it's way over to me. The skier started walking back but I held my ground._

"_Well, you're not going to be able to fit on my shoulder anymore, are you?" I tried to smile at it, but I was still unnerved by it's scythes._

"_Tops!" it replied again, this time nudging me with its scythe. Looking down with narrowed eyes, I started nudging it back._

"_So… you ready for the rest of this gym?" _

* * *

"Lizzy! Liz! Lizzy!" I was shook back into the real world by Cadence. Looking up, I noticed the Scyther had gone, but my Rattata was once again unconscious.

"…Piece of shit" I muttered to it while I returned it to its ball.

"The contest is almost over and you're passed out on the floor?" She sighed at me in desperation.

"I wasn't passed out, I was just… remembering" I replied, getting myself up off the grassy floor.

"Remembering what?" she asked. _She really can be inquisitive when she wants._

"The past" I concisely nipped the flower in the bud.

"_The past. _What did you catch?" She asked me again.

"Nothing" I replied again, sighing as I did so.

"You really are a pitiful excuse for a trainer, you know?" she laughed at me. _If only she knew._

"Well, what did _you_ catch?" I spat at her in retaliation.

"A Pinsir" she smugly said to herself. _God damn it. _"Theres still some time left – and by the looks of it, you have a _lot_ of balls left…"

"I think I'll pass – I mean, my Rattata is de…" I trailed off as I noticed a familiar face. _Eliot._

"Cay… my brother is over there" I whispered, hiding behind her as I did so.

"Why don't we go and talk to him?" her voice heightened itself up as she asked.

"_Because my mother is also there and I don't want to be seen with her" _I replied, gritting my teeth as I did so.

"Why not?" She asked again.

"She'd be, uh, disgraced by me being in Team Rocket" I made up. That wasn't the real reason. I didn't feel secure – I felt as if Proton was around the corner, glaring at every single move I made. If he were to hurt my family in order to hurt me, it would be the absolute death of me – as much as I didn't really appreciate my family – they were still my family.

"I thought you said _she_ wanted you to join" she replied almost automatically.

"I'd rather not speak about this right now" I replied, before hiding behind the fountain. "I'm going back to HQ".

"Liz – wait!" Cadence followed me. "I've got a Pinsir!".

"Yes, I know – you don't have to broadcast it".

"I want it to be judged!".

"I don't need to be there".

"Whatever, you're right".

Her reverse-psychology worked and I ended up _in_ the icy fountain, trying to hide from my family as the judging started. …Admittedly, it probably wasn't a good idea of mine to hide directly in front of the judging – directly in front of my family. Nor to be in water that was below freezing.

"In third place is… Megan, who caught a whopping Caterpie! It's score was 259" the commenter's voice rung out from behind the fountain wall.

"In second place is… Eliot, who caught a writhing Beedrill! It's score was 301" the commentator announced again, perking up my anger. _If he could have caught another Beedrill this easily, why did I have to get tangled up with Team Rocket? I would still have my team and be well on my way to Blackthorn City right now…_

"Well done Eliot!" My Mother's voice rung out. My anger was replaced with jealousy as I heard the appraisal I never received.

"And in first place, with a score of 305… is C-Cadence, with a Pinsir" the commentator's excited voice audibly died down, as if he was admitting murder.

The commentator broke up the crowd, and Cadence's head popped over the edge of the fountain. In her hand was a glistening Sun Stone.

"You look a little wet" she teased me, reaching out from the edge to help me up.

"D-Do I?" I grinned at her, before pulling her in.

"Argh! Lizzy, w-what did you achieve from that?!" she snapped at me, the cold gripping her.

"I gave you hyperthermia t-too" I laughed, before climbing out of the stone fountain, water dripping from my uniform. _Probably wasn't one of my best ideas_. Cadence crawled out of the fountain, also dripping, and glared at me.

"You i-idiot!"

* * *

Around an hour later, we trembled back into the HQ. Still damp from my frolic in the fountain, I was attempting to dry off my hair. Already, my brown roots were showing through the pink hair. _Result. _Cadence had taken her wig off, and was letting her blonde hair dry naturally. I was still envious of her hair.

"Remind me never to take you bug-catching again" she snapped at me, shaking her hair around.

"I'm on it" I was still smirking, although mentally, I felt drained. Proton could come up to me and start impaling me with a knife and I wouldn't care less...

"Hey, Lizzy"

Flinching, I turned around and noticed that Proton w_as _in fact standing behind me. _I take that back._

"Executive Proton, sir" Cadence instantly stood upright in his presence.

"You don't need to do that, uh, Cay?" he replied, trying to remember her name, blanking out me.

"Okay, sir" she replied, slouching down again.

"No I meant, the sir thing" he replied. _Why was he being nice?_

"But, sir, you're always making people say it" she replied again, on top of the ball. _She really should try and get him away before he starts hurting her._

"Well, what can I say – I'm a nice guy" he replied again, this time looking at me. My heart sank – was he imitating Petrel? Or was it Petrel imitating him? I wasn't too sure what was what anymore.

"I'm just… going to the dorms" I blurted out, ignoring both of them. 'Proton' then grabbed my arm.

"You're not going anywhere – _are you_ Lizzy?" He glared at me with eyes full of malice. _Yep. Gonna go with Proton._ I instantly reached up to my graze with my other hand and shielded it from further harm.

"Yes – I am going to the dorm" I shuddered out by mistake. _Shit! You should have just agreed with him Elizabeth! _His vice-like grip tightened itself around my arm.

"I'll ask you aga-"

"Liz, are we going to the dorms or what?" Cadence replied, smirking. Proton let go of my arm and turned to face his challenger. I started slicing my hand across my neck and desperately mouthed 'cut it out' to her before he trilled abuse towards her. Or, so I thought.

"You know – Cay, I like blondes"

_Oh for god's sake!_

Cadence instantly lit up as if she'd been offered all the money in the world. I carried on my hand action, but this time with more vigour. I was in half a mind to push Proton away, grab Cadence, and run off towards the dorm. But fear was starting to paralyse me again as it sunk in that the one man that posed all of the threats in the world was standing right opposite me. _Crap. This can only get worse._

"You see – I think most of the girls around here with these _horribly_ boring pink hair-cuts are so plain" he chimed towards her, hinting towards me. My cheeks flushed red with humiliation as he continued to block me out – making me feel as if I was a ghost. Cadence continued to not respond – but this time, she seemed endeared towards him.

"Uh – Cay? I'm going to the d-dorm" I finally managed to cough out as I really didn't want my ego to be broken down. She ignored me.

"Did you just hear something?" Proton replied for her, turning around to face me. His eyes were seemingly bright with enjoyment – he was obviously emotionally torturing me.

My chest tightened up and my mouth spread out into a twisted frown – I turned away as I felt tears well up in my eyes. Quietly, I managed to find a small, shadowed alcove and hid down into the shadows, letting beads of water roll down my face. I wanted to be left alone – until a voice rung through my wall of sorrow.

"You understand, now".

* * *

Looking up, I noticed the girl who Proton had slapped around during my first day as a Rocket was standing up at me, her eyes were dull with shadows, her skin was pale and she seemed shaky. My eyes looked her up and down – she was covered in dust, and her face looked gaunt and hollowed. I couldn't help but shake as I looked at the intimidating girl. Was she the shadow of Proton's abuse?

"K-Kris, right?" I sniffled, staring up at the shadow of the girl, trying to ignore the fact that she looked dead.

"Please call me Kristina" Kris's dampened voice echoed out through the corridor.

"I just wanted to thank you" she carried on monotonously sighing, as if all of her energy had been sapped from her. What did she want me to thank her for?

"I wanted to thank you, because Proton has forgotten about me" she smiled. My chest contorted with horror – was this going to happen to me? I couldn't find the words to reply to the dull silhouette, so I just blinked in shock.

"I used to try so hard to impress him – to stop him from hating me and from hurting me…" she emphasised the negative terms, striking a chord in my emotions. _Empathy._

"…But now, he doesn't even notice me as I walk past his office, nor if I mention his name as I walk past him in the corridor" she smiled, as if she had been unlocked from a chained room.

"But… didn't y-you like, kind of fancy him?" I managed to reply, asking the completely wrong question.

"I may have. I was mainly in love with the idea that I could live a normal life without feeling as if my life was endangered. All I felt that I needed was him, and Team Rocket, but deep down I just wanted to get out" .

I blinked in acceptance – I understood her completely.

"He doesn't notice you anymore – you can get out of Team Rocket now, right?"

"Oh, Elizabeth. I got out a long time ago." She smiled at me. _W-What did that mean?! _Kristina turned around, and walked off. My eyes widened in horror, and I instantly stood up to follow her. Pelting out of the alcove, my heart sunk.

The corridor was completely empty.

* * *

**Wow so… I might as well have a freaking medal for how dark this story is turning out. I'm not **_**exactly**_** sure where I'm going with the Kristina thing. It could either go really bad for Proton, or it could just be an hallucination – I'd rather go with the hallucination because wow poor Proton (I can't believe I just said that) ((I knew this story was dark from the abuse but … I really don't want to stray into death to be honest))**

**I would have written more, but alas I have ran out of time! (god bless British time zones).**

**Next chapter miiiiiight have a small delay because I'm starting my last ever term of high school (woo!) tomorrow – which happens to have 12 exams I need to be revising for in it. I'm not going to set myself a deadline because I'll be stressed out by it so… yeah. See you in a week or two. 8D**


	10. Damaged

**Its uh, been a while.**

**I have, well, a lot of conflict about this story lmfao**

**I read through the last chapter before after I posted it and I **_**hated it**_**. In the last few months, I have been **_**extremely**_** close to deleting it off fanfiction and rewriting it. It derailed, I lost the plot, I had no motivation to write.**

**Until I read it again.**

**Now I feel inspired to continue writing this shit stain of a fic (well come on, it's so ooc lmfao) but do you know what? Bugger it. I will carry on and you will enjoy it.**

**BUT BEFOREHAND.**

**Guess what? DOUBLE FIGURES YO.**

**This is the first ever **_**proper**_** thing I've written that has hit chapter 10 (except something I wrote when I was 12 that was as bad as Monday mornings which I am not even going to explain) and I feel as if I should kind of do something. Plus do a little bit of compensation for my downward spiral of literacy. **

**SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO~**

_**A Happy 10**__**th**__** chapter trivia – music edition**_

_***for the actual chapter, just scroll down a bit***_

Music has been, well, the driving force of this fic I guess. Originally, this was kind of a drawn out songfic of "Back Stabbin' Betty" by Cage The Elephant. Except kind of role reversed, with Proton being the "you're a low life, you're lucky that you've got me" sort of person whereas Lizzy is like the "he don't like that, he wants his life back, he wants to go back home" kind of person (except gender reversed oh lord). But yeah, the plot kind of follows this song if you're interested in looking it up!

Another song that represents the story but more poetically is probably "Back Against the Wall" by Cage the Elephant. (I don't think I need to explain why this represents this story). But yeah, theres a really cool lyric in it that reminds me of how I'm portraying Proton – "Out back the monster wears a cloak of Persian leather" which is kinda how Lizzy perceives Proton as a person.

Another couple of songs that have been pulling me through are "Secret Alphabets" and "Underdog" by Kasabian. Underdog would probably be the opening song if Macabre was an anime or something, whereas Secret Alphabets has just been a calm easy thing for me to write with.

Lizzy's theme song is easily "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" by Oasis – seriously, look at the lyrics. "Take what you need, and be on your way, and stop crying your heart out", she's looking to steal her team back, she wants to leave team rocket as soon as she's got them, and she keeps crying. It's her, oh hell.

Other songs that have helped me write this have been: (ps, please excuse my weird taste in music)

Walking With Shadows – Gary Numan

Need You Tonight – INXS

The Red Shoes - Kate Bush

Clarity (feat. Foxes) – Zedd (if I ever write a sequel for Macabre, this would probably be it's themesong)

Lullaby – The Cure

Slipping Away - Nine Inch Nails

The Perfect Drug – Nine Inch Nails

Amber Alert – The Icarus Line

Closer – Nine Inch Nails

Don't Mess With Me – Temposhark

There, There – Radiohead

Jagerbomb – Crossfaith

Key Entity Extraction II: Hollywood The Cracked – Coheed and Cambria

Frankfurt Smile – The Icarus Line

Only Love Can Conquer Hate – Ryuichi Sakamoto

And strangely enough, the main song that helped me write this chapter was Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke. Why? Don't even ask. Seriously.

**AND THAT'S THE END OF THIS INTERMISSION. ENJOY THE CRAP. WOOOO.**

**You may have found it pointless but I've wanted to share what has been inspiring me for yonks.**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

Shocked, I awoke with a jolt. Barings? My mind knew no meaning of the word as I sat upright with a jump, registering the fact that I was back in bed. I could have sworn that I had fallen asleep on the corridor – and even worse, saw what I believed to be an apparition of the girl I had met the day I joined Team Rocket's infamous ranks. I tried grasping what I could of the situation I had previously been in, and started putting together the pieces. All I could solidly remember was Proton getting rather close to Cadence and making me feel extremely inadequate – but, what was Proton out to do? Make my life a living hell, or at least I thought so. The apparition of Kristina still haunted my memory though – though it was starting to blur through what I thought was reality and what I thought was a dream.

'_Gonna go with a dream', _I thought to myself as I dragged myself out of bed. Dream or not, I was still worried about Kristina – the last time I saw her was when Proton was beating her up in the small room. Did she actually escape from there? What if Proton… no, he wouldn't have killed her. He could have easily killed me by now, but he hadn't. What if she…

"Lizzy! You're awake!" An enthusiastic squawk interrupted my dread. Cay was hanging over my bunk, completely upside down, looking extremely pleased with herself. To be frank, I'd never seen her looking so detached from her usually-cool attitude.

"Really? I thought I was swimming." I frowned at her, disapproving of how she'd stayed with Proton and not followed me – she could have vouched whether the whole deep-as-hell Kristina situation was real or my imagination. Plus, I knew Proton was using her attention-span to emotionally hurt me.

"No but – really," she dropped off the bed and stood up straighter than I'd ever seen her stand before "Proton was saying-"

"Cay, in all due respect, I couldn't give a shit about Proton." I interrupted her, turning around with a dull expression upon my scarred face. She looked a little disheartened.

"Are you okay? I mean – you seem really, uh, down."

"I'm as okay as a mouse getting pursued by a cat." I replied, putting on my stupid boots as I stood up from my stupid bed, taking in the surroundings of the stupid rockets. I hate Team Rocket. She started trying to reply again before I interrupted her.

"I'm going for a walk". I announced, before leaving her hanging mid-sentence and strode across the room in an effort to never hear the end of it.

I knew I felt horrible. I couldn't shake off the worry of Kristina. I needed to know she was okay – but I didn't know if she was. I didn't even know if her name was Kristina or not – the only thing I knew is that she was obviously part of Proton's division. And, naturally, he was the cause of this mess-up. The only thing to do was to ask him about her whereabouts, and I was about as enthusiastic to do that as my Mother letting my Kabutops walk around the house. Not very.

My steps were drowned by the footsteps of surrounding grunts – it was horribly warm and crowded, I couldn't get a breath of fresh air no matter how hard I tried. Palms like an ocean, I barraged through the crowd and popped out into a less crowded corridor. Plan… I needed a plan. Now that I had the space to think, ideas swam in and out of my mind in a total flurry. Look for her? Ask around? Raid the records of grunts I hoped existed? Everything had too much effort involved, and I was in such a bad mood that I could not be bothered to even muster up the enthusiasm required. My only other option was to get a friend to help me search – but how many friends did I have? _One_. Whom I currently couldn't face out of spite. There _was_ always Petrel – but I'd been bugging him too much recently and didn't want another violent gossip about me. Plus, he was kind of an executive and I doubt he'd have enough time to help a paranoid grunt who had a death sentence from another executive. Friction among ranks and all. But, as I eyed all the clustered grunts, I couldn't think of any other better option and made my way to the estranged executive's office.

By the time I'd got through the tidal wave of people and got to the entrance, I could hardly breathe – so when I opened the door to get drowned by smoke, I almost collapsed with oxygen deprivation. But sure enough, Petrel was leaning on his desk, looking engrossed in a stack of paper he had propped in front of him. So engrossed that he didn't notice me, giving me the option to run out without making myself look an idiot. Rationalisation started taking over me – of course it was a dream! _What am I thinking! I should just walk out again and- _

"Oh, hello Elizabeth"

_God damnit._

* * *

"Hello uh, sir" I responded, not wanting to be in the position I was in. The events of the medical room replayed and I suddenly felt the familiar feeling of threat and confusion. A big grin spread across his face as a frown started playing across mine and his mouth started to open as if to start relaying a sentence, but before he could I hastily shouted "NEVER MIND!" and turned around, only to walk head-first into the doorframe.

Laughter rung out behind me as I rubbed my forehead in frustration, and I turned back around to shoot an icy glare at the executive. He instantly stopped laughing and I made my way out of the office in an even worse mood than before. However, a voice pulled me back in.

"Wait."

_Wait for what? _I thought annoyingly to myself, frowning all the while, but still, I turned around yet again and walked back into the office. Eye to eye, Petrel lit up a cigarette, not saying a word to give way to his order. I couldn't stand any bullshit.

"I can't, I need to go." I droned out, as I tried to turn around yet again – adamant to leave the situation and be on my way.

"That's an order, Elizabeth."

_Oh for pete's sake._

A couple of minutes later, I was sat opposite Petrel, in an almost interview like situation. _At least he isn't trying to snake on top of me again. _

"Why are you even part of Team Rocket? I can tell you hate us." A grin played across his face – almost knowing that no matter _what_ I tried to say to convince him, it would be useless in trying to sway his persuasion.

"My Mother wanted me to join." I spoke calmly, staring him right in the eye, seriousness ringing in my voice. But of course, it wasn't enough.

"Whatever – I know for a fact that what you're saying is total bullshit, Elizabeth."

Taken aback by his swearing, I lost my serious stance. I'd never been afraid of the man in lipstick – but I was starting to regain my shakes that I'd develop whenever Proton was around.

"I don't really understand what you mean." I stuttered out, trying to regain my maturity but lost it when the older man shot another elongated stare at me.

"Of course you do – you know what you're doing, hell, you _dressed up _as a boy to get in – plus Proton recognised you. I mean, I'm a nice guy, but you're really starting to frustrate me."

_What am I doing to frustrate him? Oh god – don't tell me I have to confess about the Kabutops and how Proton has been treating me and-_

"Proton stole my Pokémon."

_Fucking hell, Elizabeth. Good job. If he repeats this - you are literally dead. This is it - you know how he reacted to Lyra, but another executive? I'm done for, i'm done for, i'm done for.  
_

A silence suddenly purged the room – Petrel looked as if he saw a ghost, whereas I looked as if I'd just seen Hitler. He looked as if he was trying to speak, but couldn't quite find the words to fit the situation. I was on the edge of either walking out, or piquing an argument. Ash had started to build up on the end of his cigarette by the time I snapped.

"Well – wasn't it obvious?!" I growled at him with more spite than I really should have added, fueled by my regret of letting the cat out of the bag. I jumped as he stood up with more reaction than I'd ever seen in him.

"Why didn't you tell me?!" He shouted back at me, his deep voice rasped by the crap from the cigarette.

"I wasn't really in a situation to do so! And I'm still not!" I shouted back, tears building up in my eyes _again._ In my past week of joining the rockets, I'd become more emotionally frustrated than a ballet dancer giving birth. His beady eyes looked towards my grazed cheek and he managed to put one and one together.

"Oh _god." _He sat down again, realising the hell I'd been through. "I mean – Pokémon are worthless but – your _face_."

A small grin finally broke upon my face, causing me to laugh a little. What was it about Petrel – easily the strangest executive going – that cheered me up? My laugh became infectious and he suddenly joined in.

Things were looking up until a rock hit the bottom of my stomach.

Kristina.

* * *

I had just told Petrel that Proton had stole my Pokémon – if he let it slip, it was over anyway – that ruled out the hell I would face if Proton decided to use me as a punching bag again. I ran out of the smoky office almost instantly and charged down the everlasting corridors until I hit the shadowed door of Proton's office. Adrenaline pumped through my mind as I opened the crooked door – and let my imagination be strung up by the puppeteers of dread. The monster was sitting in front of me, looking at me with a surprised, yet malignant grin.

"Lizzy, babe."

_The monster called me babe. _I refused to shut down my courage and play child with my emotions.

"P-Proton" I stuttered, trying to talk back, but unfortunately my courage started draining.

"_Sir" _he almost automatically corrected me, standing up from his chipped desk.

"W-what did you do w-wi-" he started waltzing towards me, "w-with-" he was standing in front of me. He leaned into my shoulder and whispered in a cold, crisp voice.

"With?"

My tongue wouldn't respond to my constant barrage of "Kris". My legs wouldn't respond to the repeating order of "get out". I was trapped.

The monster snaked his hand around the back of my neck, holding it in a vice-like grip.

"I don't like having my time wasted, Lizzy."

I couldn't do it. Kris was gone – at least in my mind – and I needed to be gone. Soon. Shakily, I tried to remove myself from the chains, but it wasn't working. Trapped, trapped, trapped.

"What's the matter, Lizzy? Don't you like me?" He smirked, his voice worming it's way into my mind, clawing away at my rationalisation and setting the pavement for fright. I looked around the room for any help – scanning the grey walls up and down, as if I was an animal cornered in a cage. The rough pinch started to bruise my neck, and slowly I was starting to wince in pain. _Good idea? More like you absolute idiot._

"You're a nothing but dirt, Lizzy," his voice planted seeds in my mind, "you worthless girl." He almost sung in delight as the words sliced through my sanity. Almost ironically, he moved his arms around my waist, as if he was trying to hug me.

"You're lucky that you have me."

_I. Me. Have. Him._

Almost out of natural reflex, I blushed, even though my mind was screaming in protest. I slowly tried to wrap my arms around him – as if the one person I had hated these past few days was the only sort of comfort I had.

_Stop it now Elizabeth! _My mind tried arguing to me – rationalisation realising that the only reason why I had wanted this affection was because of the monster in front of me, trying to weasel my way into insanity. I was becoming Kris. I couldn't help it, though. To be denied affection… to be somebody's punching bag, this intimacy filled in the gaps.

I didn't want it though. I tried to pull away from the vice – It didn't work.

"What are you doing? Nobody will ever want such a horrible girl like yourself" he chimed, starting to cradle me. _Nobody will ever want me._

I thought of my Mother, never putting any effort into me. My Father, leaving me and my Mother for another woman, never talking to me again. My friends, all drifted away from me.

Proton was right.

_No – wait. Proton isn't right, he's trying to damage me._

_But-_

I started crying, and he instantly pulled me even closer. I knew what he was trying to do – he was trying to reduce me to nothing, and then make it seem as if he was the only person who mattered, that I would do anything for. I understood Kris, finally.

"Hush – you've got nothing to cry about – it's the truth".

I didn't care about Kris. I wanted to get away from the sickness engulfing me.

"P-please, get off m-me" I quietly sobbed, trying to push his tall frame off me.

"Shut up, Lizzy". He commanded, pulling me even closer to the point of not being able to breathe.

Instincts took over, and I lifted my knee up to his crotch, forcing it up with all the strength I could muster. Almost instantly, he let go, rolling on the floor, and I pelted out of the room, flustered and terrified. My actions would mean he would come after me again, and it would be a replay of my first day. Where could I hide? Nowhere.

Thoughts played around with my memories – maybe Proton was right, I had nobody to vouch for me. Nobody.

I ran straight for the dorm – he couldn't enter without everyone noticing. I ran straight in, ignoring everything, and delved under my blanket, trying to lock out the demons that were haunting me. My bed springs squeaked as I curled up, feeling more alone than I ever had.

* * *

**Right. Still as terrible as ever. Oh well.**

**It's evidence that I'm still alive at least? Oh well.**

**So yeah, I'm starting british college in a few days and honestly, I don't know if I'll be able to complete this. I hope I will – I really do – but I'm not setting any deadlines or promising anything. I'm sorry if you were into this lmfao but college is 50 shades of more important than fanfiction, sorry.**


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